Friuli Venezia Giulia: talking about migrants at school is prohibited

Further censorship came to the school from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region which prohibited a debate on the topic of emigration.

It happened at the Italo Svevo comprehensive institute in Trieste where the second and third grade secondary school children were supposed to meet the representatives of an association that deals with reception in the area, together with a migrant person, who would have brought his testimony.

“This meeting included – say the organizers – direct listening to testimonies presented by those who are personally involved in migratory paths and contemplated the possibility of providing data, experiences and reports from experts on migration and racism”.

And instead the regional council imposed its veto, through the councilor for education and the councilor for security, according to whom “a public school on a topic such as immigration should offer a representation of the reality reported primarily by the institutions that have jurisdiction in the matter: the Prefecture on reception, the Police on irregular flows and the issuing of permits, the Municipality on the management of unaccompanied minors, the Region on sector regulations”.

In short, a collegial presence and a plethora of guests for a topic to be brought to the attention of only two classes, so that not only was the event blocked, but clarifications were also requested from the regional school office, which spoke of an “accident organizational”.

And if the regional education councilor of Fratelli d’Italia speaks of an ambush “carried out by an association that has nothing institutional, not recognized as an interlocutor and deployed”, the non-profit refugee office openly shouted at a ” act of censorship” by the Fvg Region.

For her part, the councilor always insists on the fact that “not a single institution had been invited to that meeting. I’m not saying the Region, but the Police Headquarters, the Prefecture, Caritas, all interlocutors on the migrant issue front. Furthermore, why have the meeting with 12, 13 year old children managed by an aligned, militant and unrecognized association? And then why invite a migrant, without making it known who he was, a stranger who could have been anyone. I would add that several parents of the children and some teachers from the same institute had also requested the note.”

Words that do not convince even the ACLI which “express concern regarding the decision of the Regional Government of Friuli Venezia Giulia to prevent a scheduled meeting on the topic of migration within an educational institution in Trieste. A choice that has the flavor of censorship, which in fact undermines the highest value of the first educational community after the family, the school; educating and training in discernment. Here, even before the merit, we believe it is the space that has been deliberately vilified and belittled in the field of dispute.”

For Arci, however, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region must learn freedom of teaching and respect the teaching autonomy of the school, leaving the police, prefecture and Region to deal with more important issues.