Only in Italy

If you have traveled abroad before, you might know that Europeans often "go on strike" or have a demonstration in the streets against some kind of policy. When I studied abroad in Paris, we saw many strikes and in fact a few of the universities in the city closed for most of the semester. Sciences Po, where I studied, added extra security so that non-Sci Po students couldn't come in and take over our lecture halls for demonstrations. In Italy, I remember not being able to rely on a bus, train or flight because transportation workers would often go on strike. Currently, the Italian government is facing many problems and many would like to see it fall. In particular, the Minister of Education has instituted many reforms affecting students in all of Italy. Within the past month, the University of Brescia was on national news because of their rowdy demonstrations against the Minister. The week before this past week, we saw the strike-fever break out in high schools.

My school: IPC Camillo Golgi

After the “bridge” at the beginning of the week, the students at Golgi organized an “occupation” of the school in conjunction with other schools in the city and region. The Saturday before the holiday, representatives of each class met to discuss the occupation with the headmaster. This occupation was not authorized by the headmaster and since the school is a public building, he could technically call the police and have the students arrested after hours. When I arrived at school on Thursday, my students told me that we wouldn't have lessons because there was an occupation. The teachers were confused because if the occupation wasn't authorized, then the students could just be kicked out. They also thought that the students might switch from an occupations to “autogestione” which basically means “self-management” or that the students would lead their own classes. Regardless, the teachers need to be in the classrooms for an autogestione because they are responsible for the students during school hours.

By the second hour on Thursday, students either were in their classrooms or occupying the school. My second hour class students were actually in their classroom ready for our lesson when a janitor/hall monitor came in to close the classroom and lock it by orders from the headmaster. She was shocked, how could we be having a lesson when there was an occupation! When we walked out we saw that the students had taken desks and made barriers in the hallways, not allowing teachers through them. On Friday, the teachers could only enter the library and administrative offices because the students were keeping them from the classrooms. Apparently fifty students slept at the school on Thursday night while the headmaster walked up and down the halls keeping watch to make sure everyone was all right. Both days, I talked to students who wanted no part in the occupation, but in the end had no choice. Like me, they left school once they saw that there were no lessons to be had or just hung around until the end of the school day. Some told me that they were frustrated with the occupation because they have exams next week and they need to study. Sure, some students were serious in using their rights to protest against the reforms but let's be honest, many just didn't want to have lessons. This was obvious when I spoke to a student on the way to school on Saturday morning.

She told me that at around 1:30 pm on Friday, a student became ill and they had to call an ambulance to bring him to the hospital. At this point, the occupation ended. I asked how he got sick and apparently he drank and smoke too much during the morning. So now, according to my student, the occupation had ended all because of this one student who got sick and ruined it for the others. She continued to tell me that they had such a fun time Friday morning before this happened because they played music over the loudspeaker and everyone was dancing and having a grand old time. Can you imagine any school in the United States allowing students to take over the school to the point of letting kids freely drink alcohol and smoke marijuana IN THE SCHOOL BUILDING? On Saturday, only about half the students came to school. Those who did already knew that they had to clean the school and put everything back in its place. Some classrooms had broken doors and lights.

My question is who is to blame? The students organized an occupation. It wasn't authorized. Yet, the headmaster allowed it to go on and did not call the police to end it. In this sense, most of the teachers agreed that the headmaster was to blame for the damage and the student getting sick. If he had authorized the occupation, then he would be supporting the protest and could regulate the students in the school. Otherwise, he should have called the police and ended it. Instead, the students ran free in the halls smoking, drinking and damaging public property. Golgi was not the only school to have an occupation during these three days. Other schools in Brescia were also occupied and I heard from another assistant in a small town outside of Milan that her school was occupied as well. Overall, the teachers told me that an occupation or an autogestione is not abnormal, but they had never seen anything so destructive as this one before. Only in Italy.

Another view of Golgi