Thomas was a model student, extroverted, cheerful and with many plans for his future. A 13 year old boy like many others until suddenly he became silent, withdrawn, at times almost violent towards himself and his parents. It took the latter six months to understand that, behind that sudden change, there was violence perpetrated by a group of bullies who, under the threat of spreading some of his stolen photos through deception, subjected him to various types of harassment. Thomas’ story is unfortunately common to that of many other young people who live in solitude, harassment and intimidation arriving through the screen of a telephone and is told in the new book of the “Cuoriconnessi” series presented yesterday at the Candle Factory in front of over 100 students of the lower and upper secondary schools. This is a project born from the collaboration between Unieuro and the State Police against cyberbullying, precisely to raise awareness among parents, teachers and children about the conscious use of devices connected to the internet. Alessandro, Thomas’ father, as soon as he realizes that his son is a victim of cyberbullying, turns to the postal police to report the tormentors. «With a stratagem – says Alessandro – I managed to make him open up by telling him that I would tell him some episodes of my life if he had done the same. He opened up and the door of horror opened wide. From there I was certain that something cowardly and vulgar had been done to him.” It all starts from some photos of Thomas that three kids manage to obtain through deception by pretending to be a girl of the same age. He naively shares the shots and from that moment the violence begins: from petty thefts to breaking his cell phone to continuous psychological cruelty, the life of this 13-year-old becomes a nightmare experienced with his eyes open. «They even went so far as to try to convince him to inject drugs – says Thomas’ father -. Luckily in this case he refused, I think about what would have happened if he had agreed to do something like that. Thomas was locked in the bathrooms, he was constantly teased because in his class there was one of these three guys who ridiculed him.” Four years later, after the criminal proceedings against the bullies began, Thomas is better inside the four walls of his house but still refuses to go out. «For us – underlines the police commissioner of Forlì, Claudio Mastromattei, addressing the students – it is sad to see both the victim and the perpetrator enter the police offices. Being responsible for such an act means that one’s name is entered into the police force database and this could lead to the impossibility, in the future, of holding any public competition. Not only the victim’s experience but that of an entire family is turned upside down. We don’t want to see you enter our offices.”
