Security in and around schools

Introduction
The school has to be a secure place. Not only for children and adolescents, but also for parents, teachers and other staff. Security is a necessary condition for good quality education. The House of Representatives closely monitors the developments in this field and therefore held a debate on the issue with Ms Marja van Bijsterveld-Vliegenthart, state secretary of Education, Culture and Science, on 20 April 2010.

Actions taken by the House
In April 2009, the standing committee on Education, Culture and Science organized a hearing with stakeholders from the educational sector, such as school management teams and charities. Subsequently, the committee submitted a questionnaire of about 50 factual questions on security policy in schools to the state secretary. In the debate that followed, the state secretary made a number of promises.

Promises
The state secretary promised the House of Representatives she would provide further information about:

- the basic skills for dealing with aggression and violence in teachers' training courses;
- the results of the consultations with internet providers about internet bullying;
- the engagement of local police officers in schools;
- the introduction of compulsory incident registration, for instance with regard to incidents of (gay and lesbian)     discrimination.

Security policy
On 18 December 2009, Ms Van Bijsterveld-Vliegenthart sent the House a letter, in preparation of the debate with the committee, in which she comments as follows on the promises she made.

In the school year 2007-2008 there was no significant change in the number of incidents, such as physical violence between staff and pupils, compared to previous years;
Schools can receive support to deal with incidents such as (cyber) bullying, drug and alcohol abuse, aggression, fights and lover boys;
This year a campaign will be launched, aimed at school management teams, school boards and school staff, under the motto "Safe public duty in education".

The Centre for School Security, a Dutch charity, has set up a web site (Pestweb), providing help and support in establishing an anti-bullying policy.

Debate
On Tuesday 20 April the House of Representatives had a debate with Ms Marja Van Bijsterveld-Vliegenthart, state secretary of Education, Culture and Science, about security in and around schools.