An art high school student Basile from Messina ended up in hospital after being the victim of a brutal attack, in the sixth hour, inside a bathroom near the institute’s gym. The beating, carried out by two sixteen-year-old girls from outside the school, profoundly shook the school community. Some students who were reaching the gym for physical education class put an end to the violence. The two young people took advantage of the confusion to escape from the school, while a school worker, who came to help, fell and was injured. Despite the immediate mobilization of the staff, the perpetrators managed to escape.
The reconstruction of the previous moments shows a dynamic that seems to have been studied in detail: one of the two – who had no direct relationship with the victim – entered through the main gate together with the other accomplice. Using the emergency stairs, he reached the classroom and, introducing himself to the teacher, stated that a colleague was looking for the student. The teacher, convinced of the veracity of the request, temporarily authorized the exit. The girl was thus taken to the gym, where her former classmate was waiting for her, who now attends another high school in Messina, with whom she had had a friendship in the past.
The first information gathered by the investigators speaks of jealousies and personal tensions that gradually became more bitter, until they turned into an act of premeditated violence. In the gym, the student was repeatedly hit with slaps, kicks and punches in a sudden and disproportionate assault.
The student’s parents have filed a complaint, providing details that could facilitate the identification of those responsible. The institute also announced legal initiatives and activated psychological support measures for the young woman, deeply shaken by the incident.