«You act as many and many girls and boys do in Italy and in other countries, by practicing solidarity, common commitment. All of this is an antidote, a dam, even against violence and for this I thank you, because it indicates a model of life that is opposed to that of arrogance, oppression, violence. Unfortunately we often see it: violence in families, violence in homes, violence against women, violence in many circumstances on the street, in recent days even in front of a school against boys”. The President of the Republic also intervenes in the case of the beating at the Michelangiolo high school in Florence at the delivery of the Alfieri della Repubblica awards.
On the letter from principal Savino instead, lthe word passes to Roberto Curtolo, director of the regional school office for Tuscany: «Principals are leaders of their educational institution, they represent it and have responsibility for this legal representation, but also from an educational point of view. They have to make choices and assume responsibility in relation to the context in which they live». «I am an administrator and I do not give political judgments. I would bring it back to the school,” concluded the head of the school office.
Meanwhile, the School Priority Committee has launched an online petition of solidarity with the principal “in the face of the explicit threats of disciplinary measures, scandalously launched by the minister”. In a few hours they reached 110,000 signatures. “We do not intend to leave Savino alone, and we begin by writing for her, as she has not left us alone and has written for us in recent days”. The idea is to organize a large mobilization in Florence for the next few days.
There are those who share the words of the principal Annalisa Savino, those who don’t, those who prefer to stay out of the debate that has spread from Florence to a national level involving the highest echelons of the ministry. But the school world defends freedom of thought. The national president of the PNA Antonello Giannelli recalls that «the principle of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution also applies to the principals. Very serious events have taken place near the high school in Florence, the city community, not just the school community, is very shaken and I can therefore understand that the principal wanted to intervene. Her message can be traced back to the perimeter of the educational mandate of a school manager ». The Tuscan president of the PNA Alessandro Artini, expressing his entirely personal position, condemns all acts of violence but “I do not register the presence now in our country of acts of squadrism” as a century ago. To the minister, however, “I advise against intervening in terms of sanctions because the principal has expressed a thought of hers”. For Attilio Fratta, national president of Dirigentiscuola, Savino «not only had the right but also the duty to remind the students of his institute about the history, without fearing any censorship or asking for prior authorization».
“Many things have been said, but I have not announced sanctions”. He writes it on Twitter the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara regarding his interview with Mattino 5 in which he also spoke of the open letter of a head teacher of a high school in Florence to his students after the clashes of recent days in front of a Florentine institute.
Not many of the Florentine principals want to comment. «I fully agree with what my colleague wrote and I express solidarity with her: she reminded the students of the principles of the Constitution, as is our duty. And it is also our duty to stigmatize episodes of violence. He acted within the scope of our duty as educators, I don’t think he did anything political or politicized and he is not to be recalled », says Osvaldo di Di Cuffa del Sassetti Peruzzi. To Simone Cavari, of Gobetti Volta, the minister’s reaction “appears excessive” for a letter that “has nothing political about it but only the values of the Constitution”. Cavari also recalls that school principals “are not bureaucrats but are part of the educational community”.