Collapse at Barsanti and Matteucci, Prayer (CISL) and Cinquini (CGIL): “Such events must never happen”

“Families entrust their children to school, certain that they will leave them safe and instead the roofs are collapsing and with them trust in the system is also collapsing. We are shocked by what happened to our school in recent days, it was literally a near tragedy: if the false ceiling had not held up, 28 students and a teacher would have paid the price. These things must not happen and above all they must not be repeated.”

As the RSU of the Barsanti and Matteucci scientific high school of Viareggio, Eleonora Prayer (CISL) and Irene Cinquini (CGIL), following the sudden collapse of part of the building’s roof, which occurred yesterday (7 May). Only by a miracle, no students were injured as the debris stopped in the false ceiling.

“We ask – they continue – for an accurate review by those responsible of the entire structure, including the main headquarters, although newer. Ordinary and extraordinary maintenance in schools should be continuous and scrupulous. Safety at work is a right, but above all it is a duty to keep our students safe. Currently the six evacuated classes have been transferred to the laboratories and the gym, however causing inconvenience to the teaching of some subjects. Teachers and students attend various compulsory safety courses every year and then the roofs collapse, without seismic shocks, just due to lack of maintenance. AND what was declared by the Province, regarding the fact that there were no warnings regarding the failure of the beam, appears even more serious: should we expect the entire roof to collapse at any moment?”.

“Are so many, too many problems at Barsanti and Matteuccimore or less serious, and which the Province has assured that it will resolve ‘shortly’, in part and within the biblical timing of the administration – the unions claim -: the fixtures, the lift now almost completed, the lack of toilets for students and especially for staff. The secretariat and presidency were moved to the classrooms on the ground floor, because the old location was obsolete, damp and full of leaks.”

“Another problem concerns the so-called ‘chicken coop classes’, the school office did not grant the fifth grade before the ordinary section and therefore next year, for the third time in a row, we will have classes of 30 students and classrooms too small to accommodate them. We are tired – conclude the high school RSU – and we demand the dignity of work we deserve for all teachers”.