Confirmed cases of 9-year-old children already taking crack cocaine, children of drug-addicted parents. Four attempted murders carried out by minors, one of which became final, with the crime of mafia association also being charged. Episodes of child prostitution that also take place inside the bathrooms of the city’s bingo halls. These are shocking data, much more than alarming, in relation to which the former childhood guarantor, the psychoanalyst and honorary judge Angelo Fabio Costantino, dejectedly states: “We are no longer able to respond to the needs of the children.” The picture that emerges from a session of the Social Services council commission which, at the end, leads to an avoidable clash is dramatic. Session during which we talk about youth discomfort in the round, including possible paths to follow and data that require reflection.
A “high” debate, which however has a sad epilogue when the majority group leader Pippo Trischitta launches a surprise attack: «I am Catholic, but many things could be done with the assets of the Church, with the properties that the Diocese has. You too must do your part, not only with Caritas money that comes from taxpayers.” Words that lead Father Nino Basile, director of Caritas, who shortly before had reeled off important data on gambling (“out of 1,700 secondary school students, aged 13 to 20, 68.5% declared they had gambled at least once in their life”) to leave the room, followed by Costantino himself. In the afternoon the solidarity of the PD group will then arrive (“a disjointed and disjointed attack, surreal words”).
But the controversy must not and cannot overshadow the contents of the discussion in the commission chaired by Rosaria Di Ciuccio. According to the municipal guarantor of the rights of children and adolescents, Giovanni Amante, «there are six areas in which it is most urgent to intervene: drugs and drug addiction, alcoholism in youth, gambling, road safety, violence and child prostitution, which has more the contours that we imagined until recently, but involves the transfer of images, spicy conversations online. Violence is often a restitution of the violence that children themselves suffer within their own families.” Once again Father Amante launches an appeal «to work as a team, we need to speak a single language and starting from January periodic meetings on each topic will be able to start».
If the councilors Alessandra Calafiore and Liana Cannata mention the projects launched (“interventions that have changed both the approach and the offer present in the area”), both in the school context and with the anonymous help desks, a bitter consideration comes from Angelo Fabio Costantino: “Hearing certain speeches I have the sensation of living in another city”. He cites the annual report of the Juvenile Court Prosecutor’s Office and rattles off numbers on civil proceedings, i.e. those concerning abuse, mistreatment, private violence, witnessed violence, school abandonment: in 2012 there were 183 open proceedings, already in 2020-21 they reached 1,334, “this year we will probably close it with 2,200 new civil cases”. A few turns of words, «this is the photograph – Costantino denounces –, youth discomfort exists, we are paying the price of two years of closure of teenagers due to Covid».
A discomfort that translates into worrying trends: a 30% increase in self-harm, a 25% increase in suicide attempts, 69 reports of school dropouts, 51 for drug abuse, 137 proceedings for parental conflicts, 34 registrations for sexual abuse. And again: 39% of the student population has taken an illegal substance at least once in their life, 28% have done so in the last year, 17% in the last month. «Where does the drug dealing take place? Outside the schools, in Piazza Municipio, in Piazza Antonello. And the sourcing often takes place through social media.”
And then another theme, also highlighted by Father Basile: the lack of communities for minors. “There are almost 100 children in communities for minors and family homes, but the structures are few, also because there is a huge drop in adoptions.” And the director of Caritas adds: «Sometimes there is the sensation of a search for visibility, without worrying about understanding whether the things we do are motivated by needs and understanding what the causes of these needs are». The need to network? «On 4 and 5 December, in the hall of the Catalfamo school, in the Cep village, Caritas is organizing a conference which will end with the signing of an educational pact for Messina. Within this network there is also the Municipality, the councilor Calafiore will be present. Together we want to find solutions, because first of all we need to stem the causes of this discomfort.”
Father Nino Basile clarifies: “No accusations against bingo halls”
“Mine is neither an accusation against the bingo hall activity, because in any case it is a legitimate activity complete with a license, nor against the owners. What I said was linked to the realities of gaming in general, not aimed at a specific activity”. This was clarified by Father Nino Basile, director of the diocesan Caritas of Messina, after the outcry generated by the statements released yesterday in the Social Services Commission of the Municipality, regarding cases of child prostitution inside the bathrooms of bingo halls. A reference, evidently, more generic to arcades. A complaint from which, however, Father Basile does not go back: “What I say I have not read in a novel, but comes to me through the confidences of educators or families. And it is a serious and real emergency, one of the causes of gambling addiction which involves more and more young people”.