A teacher at GO! MAXwell school in Maasmechelen was dismissed for showing a controversial film to a sixteen-year-old student.
During a citizenship education class, he screened excerpts from the film ‘Pink Flamingos’ to the young girl, who was the only student present in the classroom.
"My daughter called me in tears to say that something serious had happened at school," her mother recounts to Het Belang van Limburg.
"Because she was alone in class, she was allowed to choose a film. It was a long list, with several “normal” films. But my daughter chose Pink Flamingos, purely on the basis of the name and the cover.
It featured a drag queen, and my daughter is interested in cosplay. At that point, she assumed it was a cultural film. The teacher agreed with her choice and decided to watch the film with her."
‘Pink Flamingos’ is a cult film by John Waters released in 1972. This feature film contains several controversial, shocking and explicit scenes with strong sexual connotations. It is not classified as a pornographic film, but as a black comedy.
However, the film has scenes where young girls are kidnapped, impregnated and sold to lesbian couples, characters have sex with a chicken and some scenes appear to be outright rape.
Although it is banned for under-17s in the United States, it was shown to the underage pupil by her teacher.
The girl took pictures of the excerpts shown and alerted her mother and the school administration, after which the teacher was dismissed.
The local police in the Lanaken-Maasmechelen (LaMa) area confirmed that an incident had been reported at the school. The case has been referred to the Limburg public prosecutor's office.
