GROSSETO. “Ever and never. I would never dare say to someone ‘you’re as fat as a polar bear’.” The teacher, Saveria Lorella De Luca, 64 years old, originally from Livorno, defends herself and her honorability with composure and determination before judge Andrea Stramenga. She is accused of having uttered this and other phrases deemed derogatory to some students of an institute in Grosseto, a complex of situations dating back to some time ago, when the children (five identified by the Prosecutor’s Office) were aged between 15 and 16 years old.
Abuse of the means of correction the hypothesis for which it is being tried. According to the accusation, the teacher would have engaged in conduct that was dangerous for the psychophysical health of the students, with repeated reprimands and humiliating sentences that were harmful to their dignity and also with unjustified punishments. The teacher allegedly said to one of them “you’re as fat as a polar bear, you can’t feel cold”, in fact. She allegedly turned to a student and said “if you stand up it’s better, so you lose a few pounds and it doesn’t hurt”; to another she would have said “Did you bring your brain to class this morning?”; to a student she allegedly said “You have Alzheimer’s.” And finally she allegedly prevented a fifth student from going to the bathroom to rinse his eyes even though he had conjunctivitis.
And yesterday, after the testimonies of one of the mothers (who had also been a student of the teacher in the evening course and who reconstructed the picture of the time from the inside) and of a supporting colleague (who encountered many difficulties in confirming the statements made at the time to the judicial police regarding the seriousness of the sentences uttered), the teacher had herself examined, answering the questions of her defender, the lawyer Calogero Talluto of Agrigento: «The facts that were alleged against me did not happen. And I want to underline that I didn’t have any problems even with the 17 evening students. Just gossip.” And the missing drawings? «The works were kept in an old, broken chest of drawers without a lock: anyone could take them and there was no other place to store them. When I pointed out that the situation was unsustainable and that we couldn’t go on like this, the manager had another one bought, with the key.” Is it true that you kept the windows open in the classroom? «From May onwards the same kids are asking for it». Is it true that you used those phrases to address boys? «No, I only called them by their name. I’ve been working for 35 years, I would never do something like that. And I have never engaged in oppressive behavior towards either colleagues or students.” Is it true that you prevented a student, who had asked the support teacher, to go out to wash his hands? «If he was just washing his hands, he could use the sink in the classroom. However, by order of the principal, in the first hour no one leaves the classroom, except in exceptional cases.” And the issue of conjunctivitis? «It could be anything, but he was fine, he followed the lessons, I asked the principal for an emergency medical report: but there was no sign of it. It is normal for kids, when they return from an illness, to show a certification, there is no privacy.”
To the question of the honorary deputy prosecutor Alessandro Bonasera, the teacher replied that she had never uttered the bear phrase. And the minor offenses as described by my colleague just now? “I don’t know what she was talking about.”
The judge intervenes: «But do you blame yourself for something, professor? Or going back…” “Difficult question – replies De Luca – I still teach. I only know that I had just arrived at that school and that in the autumn letters poured in from parents I didn’t even know.” And he implicitly refers to the complaints of some parents then collected by the manager in a report sent to the Prosecutor’s Office. For the civil party, the lawyer Giada Isidori.
The defender gave up his witnesses and the investigation was effectively over. But the teacher must wait to know her fate: the next hearing in just over a year.
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