The school gym has been unusable since last October, some broken windows, leaks on the walls and in many classrooms of the institute the curtains are practically non-existent. In front of the entrance to linguistic high school Deledda, a Genoa More than 300 students gathered to ask for timely interventions at the Via Bertani school. A mobilization that started from the bottom and turned into an open-air confrontation with Massimo Lusuriello, president of foundation Fulgis which manages the school on behalf of the Municipality, e Barbara Grosso, municipal councilor for education. «We have been reporting the institute’s critical issues for some time, due to an certainly old building but also to lack of maintenance, yet no one had ever responded to us – explain the institute representatives Gaia, Giulia, Emma and Erica – We finally had the opportunity to talk about the situation with whoever is responsible for dealing with it. It was a constructive meeting and from next May 7th there will be monthly discussions with the foundation to take stock of the problems and interventions to be carried out”.
Hundreds of children showed up outside the institute with signs and banners “No censorship, yes to a safe school”, underlining that the most critical situation remains the unusability of the gym due to structural problems. Since last autumn, students have been teaching in the Umberto I gym in via Bertani. «The Municipality’s technicians have already carried out inspections to resolve the problem as soon as possible – explains Barbara Grosso – We are open to dialogue, with the kids we have reviewed all the reports they have made in recent months. Many involve interventions that can be managed directly by the school. For our part, we have already arranged 15 of the 30 classrooms in total.” A protest, that of the Deledda students, began with a letter addressed to the Fulgis Foundation and the mayor Marco Bucci, signed by the institute representatives and around thirty teachers, which highlighted the institute’s critical issues and requested “greater attention to the structure also by virtue of the economic investments of families who pay an annual fee”. A few hours after the announcement of yesterday’s protest, a backtrack, with a second letter, in which the students retracted some of the situations considered critical. «The foundation forced us to write a second document – the students reiterate – But we made our voice heard with the large participation in the protest in front of the school. We would have liked to arrive in procession up to Palazzo Tursi but it was not possible. We hope that this meeting truly marks a new beginning.”
