It occurs all over. It concerns male teachers just as much as female teachers. These are news- reports that make it rather difficult to digest, that you wish were not true. Yet the violence and ill-treatment of children in schools is becoming all the more frequent than we dare think. The latest report comes following the barring from the profession of certain teachers accused of having ill-treated todlers in a kindergarten in Taranto. In careful investigations performed by the “Squadra Mobile” (Squad Car Investigating Police) in Puglia, which started off at the end of the last school year, beatings and repeated offenses to the todlers carried out by the women, have emerged, one of whom even had the delicate role of giving extra teaching support to a disabled pupil.
However, news of such violence, abuse and insults were reported already in March. Not only, harmful beatings and threats poured out on innocent creatures aged just 3. The Carabinieri of Civita Castellana, Viterbo Province, have arrested a 53-year-old woman, nursery school teacher in Monterosi.
Another disconcerting episode occurred May 10 in a kindergarten in the province of Milan: beatings, insults, cursing and tape over the mouth. The surveying-camera placed by investigators even shows the teacher pushing a child’s face into the plate: he brings up the food and the teacher is seen picking up the food with a teaspoon and distributing it to several other children.
And again: 3rd September , 2014, other 3 school teachers in “Vincenzo Russo” in Palma Campania, in the province of Naples, have been taken into custody for child-abuse. The list is incomplete, but already far too long to dismiss. These are episodes that make one shudder, gruesome images, especially when more adults coerce to harm defenceless beings; and it’s astonishing how no-one in the educational institutions notices anything . Indeed, it is very rare for the complaint to come from within the school-building. It is rather more frequent for parents to capture their child’s plea for help and to turn to the police. And equally astounding is, how penalties metred out on those who commit such dishonourable crimes be so mild: “Tolerance Zero” is the password for such misdeeds.
It is of no coincidence if the “Observatory for the rights of children” has explicitly introduced psychological tests on teachers, following their concern about an ever-increasing phenomenon. “Child-abuse – said the Chairman of the Observatory, Antonio Marziale-means leaving an indelible mark throughout the child’s life. No-one is has the right to claim a similar arrogance, and whosoever does is a criminal, there are no mitigating circumstances for this “.
Traduzione: Marina Stronati
