Two days after returning to school after the Crans-Montana tragedy, the Liceo Virgilio is preparing to welcome the students of the 3rd D. Four of them are still hospitalized at Niguarda with serious burns. We talked to the professor Mario Seconewho between pain and responsibility is coordinating the return to normality of a wounded community.
Professor Secone, the day after tomorrow we reopen. But how do you enter that classroom and look at those four empty desks without being crushed by pain?
«We won’t go in alone. We asked for the support of emergency psychologists, professionals accustomed to managing traumas of this magnitude. They will welcome the students on Wednesday morning at eight. It is a “protected” return. But let me tell you one thing: there is a thought that supports us and that is no small thing. Luckily our boys are alive. Those benches are empty today, but they will be repopulated. We don’t know how long it will take, but the thought that they will return is our lifeline. This changes everything: we are not here for a commemoration, but for a wait.”
Beyond the experts, what will you personally feel when you meet the gaze of those kids who have seen hell with their own eyes?
«You know, the luck of being a school is that we don’t live on isolated moments. We are a journey, a process made of deep relationships that last years. The first impact will certainly be full of emotion, but it doesn’t worry me too much because we will be looked after. What matters is what we do next, in the days and months to come. The school is a solid emotional network. We will have plenty of time to mend the threads of these relationships that the fire tried to break.”
What did you tell the teachers? It may happen that a classmate collapses, that he is left staring into space. How do you manage that “nameless suffering”?
«We don’t feel lost. For years we have had an active psychological service for students, parents and staff. All our professionals have already made themselves available. We will tell the kids that the school is there and that they shouldn’t be afraid of their fragility. We are ready to give support to anyone who feels the need. But there is one point on which I will be inflexible: from January 7th I will ask for total silence from the media. To heal, school needs normality, not pressure or morbid attention. We need to go back to school, and to do that we need to protect our kids.”
The four boys hospitalized at Niguarda will have a very long hospital stay. How do you plan to make them feel still “in” school, even if they are in a hospital bed?
«Now it’s time for doctors, and we are proud to have an excellence like Niguarda. We respect the pain of families with a detachment that is made of vigilance and discreet closeness. But when the doctors give us the green light, we will be ready. We have the tools: home education, online connections, school in the hospital. We will make a personalized plan with the families. It will be a very tough journey, but the school doesn’t move, it stays there waiting for them. You don’t need heroes to do this, you need a serious, empathetic and wise school.”
In these days of suspension, have you received any signals from the boys? Are they preparing something for the return?
«For now they are just rumors, messages about groups. But school has been closed for two weeks, we are all in a state of suspension. On Wednesday, when we are finally together, we will listen to their proposals. They will want to do something, but it will have to be a gesture for us, for our internal processing, not something to “expose” outside. Even we adults are not made of stone, we need to understand how to start again.”
Virgilio is a huge school, with almost two thousand students. How do you turn this number into a “family” in times like this?
«It’s true, there are many of us. But at the moment everything revolves around those “4 thousand eight hundredths” that are missing. They are small numbers on a large scale, but they are immensely significant to us. We will ensure that their return is gradual and protected. They have experienced very heavy human tragedies and we do not want to add more with bureaucracy or haste. It takes delicacy. And that, I guarantee you, we will not miss.”
