According to Gie Deboutte, chairman of the Flemish network Kies Kleur Tegen Pesten (Take Sides Against Bullying), the winner showed that they had a working policy against bullying that had already shown results. Heilige Hart received €2,500 and the other schools €500 each.
Last October, 16-year-old Lisa Lejeune took her own life because – according to her brother Thibault, 14 – she was being bullied at her school in Ghent. Thibault posted a message on his Facebook page calling on friends to start an “anti-bullying wave”.
“My goal with this message is to talk about bullying so that you all know how far it can go, because [Lisa] is not the first and will certainly not be the last,” he wrote. “I’m only sorry that I’m starting this now… Help me ensure that for someone else it’s not too late.” Thibault’s appeal reached its target. “The call led to columns and testimony by Flemish celebrities who only then realised what their former bullying behaviour had led to,” said Deboutte. "Former victims, too, came forward to talk about their experiences. Some of them even volunteered to take part in initiatives like going around schools to tell their story.”
Among those former victims are Flemish pop singer Bent Van Looy and author Saskia de Coster. “It started off with teasing, but pretty soon it became physical violence,” said Van Looy. “The low point was when I was fastened to a post by the bike racks with bicycle locks, and people were standing around watching. That’s an image that stays with you. I made myself as small as possible, so as not to be noticed. When I started with pop music, I think it was a sort of subtle exercise in revenge.”
De Coster, meanwhile, talked about the psychological aspects of bullying. Bullying isn’t always “physical violence,” she said. “I think of it more as a sort of psychological warfare. Everyone behaves together in a certain way as if you’re contagious, turning away from you as if to say…we don’t want you here. You walk around with the feeling that you have bird poop on your head that makes everyone else laugh, but you can’t see it yourself. That’s actually pretty tragic.”
The anti-bullying prize has been awarded since 1999. Heilige Hart, a combined primary/secondary school, won because of a sustainable policy that set out defi nitions of what constitutes bullying and implemented actions to combat it, explained Deboutte. “They restructured recess periods to provide a range of activities that encourage and stimulate contact between students. They instituted a card system for students taking part in activities to ensure there would be none excluded by others. They printed a brochure for teachers to let them know what sort of problems they might be confronted with. They also organised a theatre piece on the problem, which then formed part of the class material.”
The Week against Bullying campaign involves various events within schools and youth groups. “But goodwill alone is not enough,” Deboutte said. “Politicians, policymakers, parents’ associations and the Flemish schools networks would do better not to wait for the next shocking incident before entering into a dialogue with each other. Let’s say yes to Thibault’s appeal.”
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