Appeals to Mattarella against the school decree with a cap on non-Italian-speaking students

President Mattarella has not yet signed the new school decree and appeals are multiplying throughout Italy with teachers and parents, but also ordinary citizens asking the head of state to send it back.

The first to mobilize were the parents of the Di Donato nursery and primary school in the Esquilino district of Rome, which has become a symbol of coexistence and integration between languages ​​and cultures. Against the decree that introduced ceilings for non-Italian-speaking students in class and established obligations and fines for their parents, Di Donato's families wrote a long letter asking the president to refer the measure to the Chambers and the parliamentarians to reject it.

That decree, they explain, is nothing other than "a contemporary version of the logic of racial laws: the public authority draws a line between people, attributes them to belonging and causes different treatment to derive from that classification", we read. Children - the families thunder - "are not quotas" and it is not even true that real knowledge of the Italian language matters. "A child with foreign citizenship born in Rome, who has always spoken Italian, falls under the roof if he has not attended two years of nursery school, which is not compulsory; a child with Italian citizenship who does not speak Italian, however, does not", they explain.

Words that have bounced from chat to chat in Rome, endorsed by parents, students and teachers of numerous Roman institutes such as Pisacane, Bonghi, Mazzini, Plinio and which are already circulating outside the capital. Also relaunching them was the Middle Student Network, which spread the appeal throughout Lazio and the rest of Italy.

"Mom, do we have to change schools because we are black?": the effect of the decree law with the foreigner cap

While minister Valditara points the finger at parents and teachers accused of "exploiting children", the message launched from the Daneo primary school in Genoa also goes viral, where the "No one is a foreigner" banner was removed by two officers and brought back only after the protests. The CGIL, with the general secretary of the FLC Elena Bruzzese, formally asked for clarifications from the regional and territorial school office of Genoa and from the Prefecture and schools to display similar banners at the entrance of all institutes. Grassroots and student unions are also mobilising.

"Selecting boys and girls by citizenship violates article 34 of the Constitution, which requires schools to be open to all, and article 3, which prohibits any distinction of race and personal condition", write in an appeal Usb, Osa and other grassroots unions and associations with which they ask President Mattarella not to sign the decree. And they promise: "There will be no roof, wall or decree capable of stopping the mobilization of those who work and believe in state public schools."

For Monday, the Osa student union has proclaimed a national day of mobilization in all schools: "Now - they announce on their social networks - the battle is open and we will not leave an inch to the government of fascists in office, which engages in state racism but does not solve the real problems".