Five-day suspension for slapping a classmate in the private parts. The problem is that the protagonist is an 11-year-old boy suffering from a severe autism spectrum disorder and followed by a support teacher, communication assistant, educator and health hygiene assistant. A condition certified by INPS as “severity paragraph three”.
What to do? The episode occurred at the Manzoni-Dino and Clarenza middle school and the head teacher Michele Bonardelli decided to suspend it. A decision that does not sit well with the boy’s family who turned to the former Childhood Ombudsman Fabio Costantino, also asking for the support of the Disability Ombudsman Tiziana De Maria. The parents start from the assumption that the boy did not even perceive the nature of the gesture and that he would not understand the value of the “punishment”. Contrary to what the school thinks which “hopes that the disciplinary measure, accompanied by the educational action of the teachers in collaboration with the family, can lead the student to serious and constructive reflection”.
And the family also announces a complaint to the prosecutor’s office.