Final exam stunts have been getting out of hand for years. ‘A sensational video now gives you two hundred likes’

Not a barricade of school furniture or a dress -up party, but heavy fireworks and fights: do exam stunts get more out of hand this year than usual? At several schools, the celebration of the last school day of high school students took their final exams in May this week turbulent.

At the Rudolf Steiner College in Rotterdam, young people put off heavy fireworks on Wednesday and tried to kick doors. « Agents were pelted with eggs and fruit, » says a police spokesperson. The school was already closed, the police used armeles when young people did not want to leave. « This violence always looks fierce, but was considered necessary, » the police say. In Rotterdam it was also restless at the Emmaus College on Thursday. « Young people threw eggs, including the police. »

It is the start of saying goodbye to your high school days, a forming phase in which young people a lot of socially try

In Almelo, about eighty to a hundred students wanted to do an unannounced final exam stunt at Alma College on Tuesday. In addition, « a grim atmosphere, » said the Eastern Netherlands police. Young people put heavy fireworks off and committed vandalism. Four boys and a girl were arrested.

In Almere, on Wednesday, at Oostvaarders College, Vechtparijen broke out at a stunt with a confetti and a foam gun. Three young people were arrested. In Noord-Brabant, the police arrested a student who may have had an explosive in his backpack in a stunt.

Trend

Whether exam stunts derail more often than before, is difficult to say. Figures are missing. The VO council, the umbrella organization of secondary education, sees a trend based on anecdotes. « You sometimes had an outlier for Corona, now we see ten to twenty incidents every year, » says a spokesperson. He blames that on social media, among other things. « A sensational video will give you two hundred likes. »

« The rebellion of the seventies is back, » says Jaques Dane of the Education Museum in Dordrecht, who investigated the phenomenon of exam stunts. « The year after the train hijacking of De Punt (in 1977), students in Haarlem pretended to host their teachers, complete with balaclavas. »

According to Dane, stunts are of all times. « In recent years, schools have tried to check them in by consulting with students. Now that seems unorganized back. »

Sociologist Beate Völker sees how the exam stunt has ritual traits. « It is the start of saying goodbye to high school days, a forming phase in which young people are a lot of social trying. Playing with power relationships is part of a stunt, just like your final exam cohort as a group presenting to the rest of the school. Teachers through the mangle is actually reflecting on your school time. »

According to Völker, exam stunts also have a long history of getting out of hand. « Now it is very intense. I see paving. »

At Völker itself, the exam stunt joined ‘very well’ a few decades ago. « We went singing along the classrooms and emptied the fully written blackboards. »

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