Naples, students forced to volunteer for FAI protest, and delegate demands 7 in conduct

Singular incident happened to the fifth B students of Liceo Classico “Vittorio Emanuele II” in Naples during the FAI Spring Days (read also our articles on the subject by clicking here). According to a note posted on Facebook by the students, the class was asked to serve as “volunteers” for the FAI Spring Days at a museum in their city, as part of the mandatory school-to-work alternation, for the day of Sunday 25. The students, returning from an educational trip that ended the day before, reportedly expressed their intention not to go to work the next day, and for that reason the teachers allegedly aired disciplinary measures. In the end, the students still went to the museum to comply with their request, but they conducted a protest that was both silent and noisy: in fact, they performed their service wearing a badge bearing the reasons for their protest. Also according to the boys’ account, the FAI delegate, disagreeing with this form of protest, allegedly threatened the boys with asking teachers for a 7 in conduct and non-admission to exams. We publish below the full note circulated by the students on social media:

Threats and 7 in conduct for a school-work alternation dissent card.
But really #FAI?
Sunday, March 25 is FAI day, open museums and volunteers to act as guides. There are some, however, who don’t do it out of passion or free choice, and that’s us, the #alternanceschoolwork students.
We from Vittorio Emanuele II’s VB on Saturday, returning from the educational trip, informed that almost no one would go to the alternance the next day, because of fatigue, because we live far from the center, to study, to have lunch with our families. The problem of coinciding with the return from the trip we had already pointed out a month earlier, but the day had not been changed. Immediately threats of serious disciplinary action from the leadership came through the teachers, so we decided to go, but carrying a symbol of protest with us. While we were doing our work as guides, instead of the FAI badge that said we were student volunteers, we put some made by us to denounce the fact that we were not volunteers but obligated for the school-work alternation.
We found it to be an outstanding and very communicative method of protest: people, interested, asked for further explanation and almost always complimented. The FAI delegate, on the other hand, didn’t feel the same way: she tried to tear off a girl’s name tag, even threatened us with non-admission to the exam, saying that we were besmirching FAI days, that it would be better if we left, that that wasn’t exploitation. He called the principal and our professors, who rushed to the museum, and so the discussions became more and more heated. Meanwhile, the visitors agreed with us and even left positive comments on the logs.
While on Sunday it ended with a couple of threats, today Monday the same FAI delegate came to the school to report the incident and demand disciplinary action. The tutor teacher was told that she was incompetent and could not handle the situation, and that the name tags should have been taken away from us immediately. Our professors were called by the principal and we were told that the whole class will have a disciplinary note and a 7 in conduct at the end of the year.
In short, in addition to the damage, there is also the mockery: forced to spend Sunday in a museum and also sanctioned for expressing dissent. We feel we are facing a very serious denial of freedom of expression, and above all, we have finally seen for ourselves what it means for private entities to enter public schools. Now the entities with which we do alternation have the right to claim on disciplinary sanctions, to have a say on a five-year educational path. In the classical high school they teach thinking, they say, but now they will penalize a whole class that with critical thinking has opposed unrecognized and unpaid work.
Now they are punishing us and want us to regret our action. We, on the other hand, are aware that in that museum we not only completed our work but also raised awareness about a problem that all male and female students experience, so we can only be proud of that.
We don’t like alternation, we have never liked it, and after three years of experience we are only more convinced of it. Sanctions and threats will not stop us from shouting it louder and louder.

Pictured: the V B students of the “Vittorio Emanuele II” high school in Naples.

Naples, students forced to volunteer for FAI protest, and delegate demands 7 in conduct

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