Teacher stabbed, Valditara: nearly 3,000 interventions in 276 schools over four months

Twenty-four hours after the stabbing at a secondary school in Rome (the Giovanni Verga Institute) of the 66-year-old teacher Isabella Marsilio by a 13-year-old pupil who livestreamed the incident on Telegram, Minister Giuseppe Valditara has reiterated the school safety measures introduced at the start of the year. He highlights the results: in four months, nearly 3,000 interventions have taken place in 276 schools, and dozens of weapons have been seized.

With regard to the implementation of the Piantedosi-Valditara circular on school security checks using metal detectors, a statement from the Ministry of the Interior (MIM) emphasises that ‘between February and May 2026, 2,828 inspections were carried out, covering 276 schools across the country, resulting in the seizure of several dozen offensive weapons, including: knives, brass knuckles, scimitars, air pistols, truncheons and machetes’.

According to the Minister for Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, ‘now that it has emerged that 70 per cent of young people are in favour of checks of this kind,’ he adds, ‘we should instead ask those political parties that have criticised the measure as repressive what exactly should not be cracked down on: the right to carry knives to school?’

The Carabinieri carried out a digital search of the mobile phone belonging to the 13-year-old who attacked the teacher yesterday, as well as his mother’s phone, where the credit card details used to purchase the knives had been saved. The investigators also made a forensic copy of the data.

The aim is to piece together the minor’s contacts prior to the incident and to ascertain whether anyone may have incited him to attack the teacher. As part of this, the social media profile that the young man had set up – which had four followers – will also be analysed. The 13-year-old, in fact, went live on social media before attacking the woman.