Spring jitters in court: is there a defamation or freedom of expression?

‘Dirty Pedos’, a man calls against the employees of Knowledge Center Rutgers who enter the courtroom in Utrecht on Thursday afternoon. He is no stranger to them: last year he was unexpected and threatening in their office, after which the foundation was screwing in. has brought summary proceedings because of the spreading of ‘persistent lies and defamation’.

When everyone has sat down in the room, Rutgers’ lawyer starts her plea. She argues that Civitas has been running a slander campaign against Rutgers for years. Under the name ‘Family in danger’, Civitas would spread lies over Rutgers himself and about the teaching package for sexual education made for schools and the Week of the Spring Jitters, a theme week for primary schools that started on Monday.

Sex education is not mathematics with hard outcomes

This year Civitas has one Black book spring jitters published, which is a subtitle: The Rutgers sexualizes our children. It states that the Knowledge Center Young Children forces information about sex where they are not ready and encourages them to sexual acts, such as self -gratification and ‘sexting’, sending bare photos and videos.

The lawyer argues that it is ‘demonstrably incorrect’ that Rutgers with the teaching package and the theme week is a danger for children and an impetus for immoral behavior. Good sex education at school can help prevent child abuse, she says, because children learn to give their limits and talk about abuse. She is just as personal as she tells about her four -year -old son who was also taught at school this week about the spring jitters. In addition, nothing really happened, she says.

According to the lawyer, it is not Rutgers who sexualizes, but Civitas. He bases the accusations on a « extremely conservative » and « perverse » view of information about resilience, relationships and sexuality.

Secret agenda

According to the lawyer, it is created in the Zwartboek that the normalization of pedophilia is the ‘secret agenda’ behind the Week of the Spring jitters. Nothing could be further from the truth, she argues. « Rutgers has always rejected sexual contact between children and adults and has been committed to sexual cross -border behavior and violence for decades, including child abuse. »

Rutgers thinks it was enough: this black book full of disinformation and defamation must be withdrawn and rectified immediately. That is the reason that Rutgers did not opt ​​for a soil procedure, but for summary proceedings, where there is an urgent interest.

According to Rutgers, the Zwartboek does not only cause unrest in parents. It makes it difficult for teachers to teach about sexuality, as it was apparent at the beginning of this week surveyand also encourage hatred and threats towards Rutgers employees. « We have just experienced that again when entering the courtroom, » says the lawyer.

No mathematics

Civitas opts for the counterattack: it is not the society that should rectify something, but Rutgers. The lawyer submits this to the court as a counterclaim. According to Civitas Christiana’s lawyer, Rutger’s family tries to put away in danger as « extreme conservative », « to press her in the extremist corner for the general public. » According to him, Rutgers is guilty of spreading defamatory disinformation.

« Sex education is not mathematics with hard outcomes, » says the lawyer. « People can think differently about this and can have a different opinion about this in a democratic constitutional state and reveal it. » Civitas finds the content of the teaching material too explicit, too promoting and focused on a too young target group. According to him, that opinion is based on ‘extensive research’ and hard facts. There would be no lies, disinformation or slander. As a well-known organization that often searches for media attention, Rutgers must also be able to collect criticism.

It will not come to a decision in the week of the spring jitters, says the judge. The parties will have to wait two weeks.

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