Raid on the occupied Righi High School: "Duce, duce!"

Moments of fear yesterday evening when a group of young hooded men dressed in black threw bottles and attacked cars and bins in front of the occupied Righi high school, in Via Campania, a few steps from Via Veneto and Villa Borghese, shouting 'Duce duce'. Fortunately, there were no injuries and before the police arrived, the group dispersed. Among the reasons for the occupation of the Roman high school, which has been going on since 22 October, was the cancellation of a conference - which was to take place at the institute, on the situation in the Middle East, attended by a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla - after criticism from Lega deputy Rossano Sasso. In the past few days in the occupied Leonardo da Vinci high school in Genoa, a similar scene had unfolded, with a group of students vandalising everything with clubs and bars, while praising fascism and Nazism in front of the terrified occupants. "The bottle-throwing attack against the students of the Liceo Righi, gathered in assembly, is a very serious fact that cannot be minimised.

We are faced with a political, violent and squadrist aggression that must be condemned without ambiguity,' says PD senator Cecilia D'Elia, who in the Senate, with her colleague Filippo Sensi, has tabled a question 'for the government to respond and above all to stop pretending not to see'. In the Lower House, MP Andrea Casu, after publishing pictures of the attack on the Roman high school on social media, also announced that he would table a question. The season of occupations in high schools shows no sign of abating. Yesterday morning two more historical high schools in Rome were occupied: the Mamiani and the Aristophanes. Mamiani headmistress Tiziana Sallusti warned that she will request eviction and called on parents to call their children home 'as they are in a dangerous and illegal situation. We warn guests and self-styled experts to participate in the activities of the occupying students as the school is hostage to a minority. The headmaster, teachers and staff condemn this unmotivated and wanton act". The motivations for the occupations, in addition to solidarity with Palestine, also lie in a form of protest against school infrastructure considered inadequate and an outdated pedagogical model.

Then today, in 30 squares throughout Italy and in front of the Ministry of Education in Rome, the Usb and the Osa and Cambiare Rotta youths demonstrated. The reason for the protest is also a course entitled '4 November. La scuola non si arruola', reserved for teachers, for whose participation the ministry in Viale Trastevere did not allow exemption from duty.