School, when 'suspension' takes to the streets Students 'On the Road' alongside uniforms

18 years after its inception, the Ragazzi On the Road association is inaugurating a new test that unites schools, universities, municipalities, provinces, police forces, local police, rescue operators and voluntary organisations, transforming some school suspensions into civic experiences in the field.
The three-year period 2025-2027 represents a crucial phase, marked by the On the Road national experimentation Protocol, signed with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The Protocol recognises and extends the project as a model of civic education, legality and road safety learned directly in the field in the shoes of uniforms. A format already successfully tested in Varese and personally experienced by Ministers Matteo Piantedosi and Matteo Salvini at the Rimini Meeting.

In parallel with the recognition of the project as a School-Work Training activity (formerly PCTO), training credits and voluntary work, the new national test allows schools to convert some disciplinary suspensions into real active citizenship courses in the field: students working alongside the Police Force, Local Police, NUE 112 operators, Civil Protection, emergency services and local volunteers. With the aim of creating awareness in young people: of the risks to avoid them and the rules to respect them. Not a punishment, but an entry into reality, where the road becomes a path of responsibility and growth. At the centre remains the approach that has characterised On the Road since its inception: boys educating boys in the shoes of uniforms.

The test starts in Bergamo, the provincial capital where On the Road was born 18 years ago in the Seriana Valley. The lead school is the Istituto di Istruzione Superiore 'Guido Galli', dedicated to Judge Guido Galli, murdered in 1980 and a symbol of legality. The course is coordinated by school headmaster Prof. Brizio Luigi Campanelli, who has chosen to involve students suspended or subject to disciplinary measures, offering them a concrete possibility of positive reorientation. The educational and psychological supervision is entrusted to Lorenzo Brollo, a psychologist with expertise in traffic and emergency psychology, head of the educational team of Ragazzi On the Road and contact person for schools and universities.
The experimentation is based on collaborations already started with schools and associations in the area, such as the project "On the Road. Giovani protagonisti per la sicurezza, lo sport e la cittadinanza attiva", winner of the announcement Giovani SMART, promoted and financed by the Lombardy Region, which foresees the direct involvement of the students of the EFP Sacra Famiglia in experiential paths of prevention and civic education, and the collaboration with CSI Bergamo and Associazione Atena in educational activities in the classroom and on the territory.

"School today is the first place to build civic sense, but it is on the road that this civic sense becomes experience," says Egidio Provenzi, president of Ragazzi On the Road. "We are uniting two worlds that complement each other: we are already working with more than forty secondary schools so far on the side of school-work training, offering students a concrete, real education that helps them understand what it means to be responsible citizens, while waiting for the implementation of what is laid down in Presidential Decree 134/2025.
The Presidential Decree stipulates that, in the event that a student has had a disciplinary sanction involving expulsion (suspension) of between three and fifteen days, he or she must be involved in active citizenship and solidarity activities at external structures that have an agreement with the school institution (Third Sector entities, voluntary associations or organisations operating in the social field). All this will come into effect when, following the issuing of the Guidelines by the Ministry of Education and Merit, the Regional School Offices will publish notices for the identification of host structures, periodically checking their requirements and annually updating the lists.
Ragazzi On the Road, as soon as it is possible, will propose itself as host and to prepare for this moment, it has decided to experiment the activity by cooperating with the Guido Galli Institute, with which other forms of collaboration had already been active for some time.

"The new rules on disciplinary sanctions envisage that class councils (in the case of suspensions of more than two days) deliberate on active and supportive citizenship activities to be carried out at host structures with which the school institution, within the scope of its autonomy, enters into agreements, ensuring the connection and coordination with them," explains Brizio Luigi Campanelli, headmaster of the Guido Galli Institute. "These conventions regulate the customised training pathway of active citizenship and solidarity activities, the times, methods, context and limits of its implementation at the host structures, as well as the respective reference figures. As an institute, we could not help but think of the Ragazzi On the Road association, which I have known for years and appreciate for the high training and educational value of the activities it has been proposing for years. For this reason, while waiting for the full implementation of the provisions of Presidential Decree 134/2025, we decided to start an experiment by signing an agreement that will regulate the path to follow for students who will ask for their sanction to be converted into an activity to be carried out through the Ragazzi On the Road association. I would like to thank Vice President Alessandro Invernici and all the staff of the association for the full availability shown in accepting our proposal'.