A follow-up to The Cost of Looking Away and The Way Forward to Prevention; notes from a neighbourhood meeting, and a reflection on the school holiday.

Before the school holiday, the Gemeente organised a meeting with residents about the situation around the Cornelius Haga Lyceum. Around seventy people attended: neighbours, police, eight government employees. The school was not invited; the relationship between municipality and school had not recovered from the last mediation attempt.

My neighbour Nicholas attended and shared his notes. I'm grateful for that. Nicholas is someone whose actions go well beyond his words, and his account is the most complete picture I have of what was discussed. I'm quoting him below, with minor edits for readability.

Nicholas's notes from the meeting

Police (neighbourhood watch) was there, many neighbours, 8 or so government employees, not the school (last mediation didn't help well and relationship was not good for a while). Around 70+ people in total.

Many are very frustrated, annoyed, feel unsafe and have some shocking stories (brooms thrown at peoples head whilst cycling, punches thrown, intimidation, shockingly foul language). Around 10 very vocal neighbours were annoyed with the lack of progress and apparent lack of consequences to the actions of a small group of trouble makers.

We all recognise that the majority of the kids are just kids that don't have bad intentions or upbringing, but often too easily swayed into crossing a line.

The main problem is (imo) that they grew too big too fast from 200 to 500 students. Turns out they had to, if they wanted to get a new location appointed to them and keep their accreditation. Chicken and egg stuff.

Government responsible employee for appointing this location mentioned these are the rules and they are trying to bend them but struggling (so most likely the 500 students will remain there).

Government acknowledged they need to step up as an authority / law enforcement. And they will. In the next months (not days or weeks) more police, surveillance, coaches will be on the streets.

Police is committed to processing all complaints and criminal cases, with a specific request to not complain anonymously so they can still ask you further questions (they promise your info will not be shared with the school). And additionally mentioned they have also received quite some racist complaints that they don't appreciate.

One Neighbour mentioned he is not waiting much longer for a solution and a small group is planning to take the school to court if the government fails (to accelerate) these mediation and problem solving attempts.

Municipality west has reestablished relations with the school and is now trying to build on this with all the right intentions to help them manage 500 students without a schoolyard. This seems to be one of the main problems for the negative attitude and the bad experiences of most neighbours. Also the mess and the bins. A larger workforce from the government is looking into this now. The school is as frustrated as the neighbourhood with the lack of progress.

My personal feeling is that the sense of urgency with the municipality is a lot higher than before. But only time will tell.

They clearly stated that they really want to stop the "us against them" feeling that both the school as well as the neighbours are having. The lady of the municipality made a personal speech that touched me personally by saying "these are also our Amsterdam kids. they're one of us. Let's try and treat them this way."

Nicholas also summarised what he sees as a series of unfortunate events unfolding at the same time:

1. Temporary housing of 200 kids in a new, highly dense urban area
2. Growth to 500 to fulfil capacity requirements and be granted a new building location (there were no incidents at the 200 level)
3. An old, monumental building that can't cope with modern standards for a school: no schoolyard, bins and rubbish everywhere
4. Low scores leading to fines and lower grants, leading to lower budgets
5. Cultural differences that acted as an accelerator for polarisation when incidents occurred, leading to more annoyance, bigger incidents, and more polarisation

The school's side

After the meeting, Nicholas added important context:

The school wasn't invited yesterday by the government (just to be clear).

The school is very serious. They're fed up with the empty government promises, the delay of the new building that has actually been cancelled now (so no new move in sight) and the many little promises "new bins, small court yard, all not achieved because of bureaucracy".

Also, the likes of de Telegraaf and PowNed out front and the messages and complaints they've received with racial slurs can't be discounted.

These are people. They are truly trying.

They have a new board member and are looking to improve, as they have to to stop getting fines and remain accredited, to ensure their school and community has a good educational future.

The school is understaffed and overworked. Every teacher is doing more than one job. Volunteers are welcome.

Before the break

In the days before the holiday started, kids threw flour and eggs at buildings. Police came. I don't think anything major happened. But it's representative of the stress everyone is living with, on all sides.

Then the holiday came, and with it, quiet. No groups on the corner. No shouting at 3pm. The neighbourhood felt noticeably different. People stayed outside longer. Conversations between neighbours were lighter. Not because anything was resolved, but because the daily friction was simply absent.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow the school reopens. The 500 students return to a building with no yard, in a neighbourhood that has had two weeks to remember what calm feels like.

The municipality says it is stepping up. The school says it is trying. The neighbourhood says it is running out of patience. Nicholas felt the meeting was constructive and the sense of urgency higher than before. I hope he's right.

I don't want to predict what happens next. I'd rather be surprised by progress than confirmed in my worries.

What I do know is that this situation was not created by one party and it won't be solved by one party. The government needs to follow through on its promises. The school needs support, not just scrutiny. And the neighbourhood, us included, needs to keep showing up, keep talking, and keep treating these kids as what they are: Amsterdam kids who ended up in a bad situation that none of them chose.

The municipality said they will share more information in a letter in the coming weeks. We will see.

Stay safe, keep doing good,
and let's not look away.