UPDATEThere was a commotion at VIA Tienen secondary school after a teacher confiscated a Flemish flag from a student during diversity day. “In his opinion, it was too provocative,” Bassem Khalil (17) testifies to HLN. The flag riot is spreading like wildfire on social media, but the school board is not happy with that. “We regret that this situation has been turned into a political spectacle.”
On diversity day, high school students were invited to bring their culture’s flag, music and some food. Bassem – who is of immigrant descent, but feels “through and through” Flemish – decided to bring a completely black Flemish lion. But when he started waving it on the playground, the management immediately intervened, he said.
“A teacher came up to me and ordered me to hand over the flag,” says Bassem, who describes his teacher’s actions as “striking”. “The school board found it provocative on a diversity day, even though it has nothing to do with politics. It’s just a flag of our community, and it was taken away from me,” said the 17-year-old student. “Everyone was allowed to raise their flag, except me.”
However, Bassem’s flag was not a flag of the Flemish Community. The official flag of Flanders depicts the lion with red claws and a red tongue. The Flemish battle flag – of which Bassem had taken a copy to his school – is one with a completely black lion. That unofficial version is the symbol of the Flemish Movement and is sometimes also referred to as “the collaboration flag”.
WATCH ALSO. What is the difference between lion flags? Historian explains
The general director of secondary education Tom Sevenants therefore contradicts that the flag has nothing to do with politics. “This flag was a black Flemish Lion, which symbolizes the Flemish emancipation and is politically charged,” he told our editors. “A teacher on the playground talked to the student and took away the flag because it did not fit the assignment. This was not a decision against or for Flemish identity,” said the director.
N-VA takes action at the school gate
Images of the moment are spreading like wildfire on social media. And Flemish nationalist politicians are also jumping on the flag riot. “Self-hatred in Flanders has come a long way,” Flemish Member of Parliament Sam Van Rooy (Vlaams Belang) responds to X. “This is just one example that is now coming out, but we have received many such reports in recent years.”
But N-VA was also unhappy about the incident. The local branch in Tienen went to the school gate on Monday morning to take action, with MP Theo Francken and Young N-VA chairman Jeroen Bergers in the lead. “I wonder a lot about what happened in this school,” Francken said.
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Director Sevenants is not amused that the situation was “immediately turned into a political spectacle.” “It is bizarre that such events are immediately picked up by political parties,” he says. “A school should not become a political arena where politicians compete for media attention at the expense of the students. We are a multicultural school, a reflection of today’s society, with attention to diversity and inclusion.”
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Tags: Media attention expense students school management amused riot Vlaamse Leeuw Domestic
