Parent reports: 'My daughter excluded from the canteen for 12 euros'

A nine-year-old girl excluded from the school canteen for an alleged past debt of around 12 euros, never before contested by the family.

This is what was reported by the pupil's father, through the lawyer Fabrizio Del Vecchio, who today sent a warning to the Municipality of Taranto, requesting immediate readmission to the service and reserving the right, otherwise, to appeal to the judge.

The story concerns a little girl who attends the complex of a comprehensive institute, continuously from 8am to 4pm. On 2 November, her father was apparently forced to pick her up early from school, after the institute had reported the failure of the child's meal to arrive, following a communication from the municipal offices linked to an alleged arrears in the previous school year.

According to what is reported in the formal notice, the debt had never previously been requested from the family, who would have paid it if informed.

"The school canteen - we read in the act - in particular in full-time schools, is not a merely accessory public service upon individual request, but rather an essential and integral moment of the training and teaching process and of the constitutionally guaranteed right to education".

The interruption of the meal, continues the lawyer, exposes the minor to "traumatic and unacceptable discrimination and marginalization in front of her classmates".

The warning asks the Municipality to restore the service within 24 hours of receipt.

"While the Municipality's legitimate right to initiate ordinary debt collection procedures against parents remains unchanged - says Del Vecchio - it is totally illegitimate to take action against the minor by suspending the provision of the meal".

In the absence of feedback, the lawyer announces the appeal to the competent judicial authorities, also for compensation for damages.