La Spezia, first day of school without Aba, students in revolt

It was the day of anger and demand for justice on the part of high school students in La Spezia. About a thousand of them, at the peak of their attendance, gathered this morning in front of the 'Domenico Chiodo' vocational institute to show their solidarity with their colleagues who last Friday saw one of their classmates, Abanoub Youssef, only 18 years old, fall victim to a stab wound inflicted by 19-year-old Zouhair Atif inside the high school. Atif is meanwhile before the Gip, who is charging him with murder aggravated by ulterior motives. The school was supposed to open in the presence of psychologists, called in to help process the shock and grief, but no one showed up in class.

From 7 a.m. onwards, a procession of tearful boys and girls carried flowers, messages and lit candles to the foot of the entrance, then waited in silence for the entrance time. Many clutched a photo of Aba modified with artificial intelligence, white angel wings and the blue sky as a backdrop. But at 8.10am, composure became protest. "The school should not have opened today," shouted one student as her classmates tried to close the door with resistance from school staff. The Digos deployed diplomacy, talking to the boys, but the protest against the school grew, a school accused of not having done enough to prevent Aba's tragedy, of having underestimated the signals given by his murderer, "a problematic boy" one student would later say over the megaphone who, she claimed, "had already threatened" others of them in the past.

'The school is complicit', the students shouted. From slogans to stadium smoke bombs, the garrison became a procession through the streets of the city centre. In Piazza del Bastione a minute's silence forced even a nearby building site to stop. Then a second stop in Piazza Verdi in front of the Mazzini middle school and finally under the portico of the barricaded Palazzo Civico. The group finally reached the Palace of Justice, where Aba's father and uncle entered to confer with the public prosecutor's office. "As a family we demand life imprisonment, the maximum sentence. This affair must become an example for anyone who does such acts," says Kiro Attia Ayman, Aba's cousin. But it is the school that the boys are now targeting: the school that should help them grow up and defend them from everything. There are those who see Abu's parents entering the courthouse and spread the rumour that their presence could mean legal action against the school. But it does not.

There is no truth in it, there is no criminal profile against the school. When the relatives come down from the Palazzo, where they have met the La Spezia prosecutor for a brief interview, for a moment the anger subsides: there is emotion when one of the policemen embraces Aba's distraught father. And the garrison of hundreds of young people breaks up to reform in front of the morgue. In silence. On Wednesday, an autopsy will be performed on the body of their schoolmate, and in all likelihood the funeral, on which a day of public mourning has already been called, will be held on Thursday. The Youssef family is Coptic Christian, a very small community in La Spezia. The funeral could also be held in the cathedral to welcome the expected crowd already today.