The news episode that occurred in La Spezia has reignited the debate on safety in Italian schools. Among the proposals that emerged, there was that of the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara of set up metal detectors in “at risk” schools upon request of the school director. A proposal that has sparked debate between those in favor and against. In this interview, Enrico Galiano analyzes the issue starting from the psychology of adolescents and criticizing a management of the problem that he defines as purely repressive.
What do you think of the proposal to install metal detectors in schools as a response to the events in La Spezia?
«I can’t have a thought on the story itself, because I don’t know the protagonists closely and therefore I can’t comment on this story. What I can say is that based on the explanation of the boy who killed his partner it was a question of a girl. Well, I can express myself on this because in recent years I have noticed – we all have it before our eyes – the problem of a concept of masculinity that is still too stuck in the past, understood as the defense of a territory, of possession. In general it is never a sentimental question, of emotions and feelings. It is often a matter of ownership, pride in the worst sense. This is the worrying thing. Then, on the topic of weapons, it seems to me that the news and numbers do not present us with an emergency. That is, there aren’t enough unsheathed knives at school to make everyone run for cover, or at least I hope so. However, there is a theme of violence exercised to defend a territory, to defend male pride, yes.
For this reason, all the remedies that I have heard proposed in recent hours by those with decision-making roles – and I am thinking of the tightening of penalties, I am thinking of metal detectors – seem to me not useless but out of focus. It’s the example I gave on my social media: it’s like banning toothpaste and then waving the drill at the dentist as a threat. It’s like hiding dust under the carpet: where dust is a topic of education in feelings. Unfortunately, this government has expressed itself quite clearly on the topic, saying on several occasions that sexual-affective education is not the responsibility of schools, but of families. Well, if these are the results, I must say that perhaps many families are not that capable of exercising it properly. We must look reality in the face and note that there are families where a certain type of education is absent, and the values that are transmitted to children are precisely those values possessed by the dominant male, the alpha male. If schools don’t do it, which is the last bastion of democracy before the adult world, who can do it?”.
If the metal detector is not the solution, how can we reassure families who today are anxiously experiencing the increase in violence among young people?
«If the remedy is the metal detector, I’m sorry to say it, but it’s clear that it was proposed by incompetent people, that is, by people who don’t know what a teenager is like. First point: a teenager can find a way to get a weapon in, if he really wants it. Metal detector or not, the weapon enters the school and there is no problem. Second point: an adolescent’s brain stops relying on logic and reasoning in moments of anger and frustration. There are those five minutes in which the blood doesn’t reach the head, in which there is no rationality, calculation or deterrence. There’s no such thing as: “Well, the punishment is harsher, so I’m fine because otherwise I’ll go to prison”.
They are kids who at certain times lose control so much that they end up putting their hands on the teachers. They are kids who suffer from the inability to verbalize emotions, to exercise control over them, to govern their impulses. There is no punishment or metal detector that matters: only prevention, which can only be done through constant education about feelings. So, if the remedy is just to tighten the penalties and increase controls, sorry to say, but it won’t do any good, just to spread propaganda and give the illusion of safety. As for parents who would like to be reassured, what I can say is that they are not phenomena so numerically important as to make you afraid of being afraid to send your child to school. The resonance of the news risks altering the perception of danger. And to all of them, however, I would like to say that the real danger is not stabbing: you have to worry about the fact that your sons and daughters go to class with students convinced that “If you are my girlfriend you have to ask my permission to go out” or “If we are together no one should dare to publish photos with you”. That’s what you have to worry about, not the knives. The knives come later.”
