A school in Italy will pay 60,000 euros in compensation to a student who was bullied by a classmate
2024-07-30 10:19:42
TiranaPost
"I spent years being afraid, hiding. Now with the verdict condemning the school that allowed me to be bullied, I am reborn. I am ready to say: Do not be afraid. Report bullying".
Anna is 20 years old and finally smiling. She struggled first with bullying, then with its consequences and received psychological help. Now the decision of the Court of Appeal of L'Aquila condemns her former school, considering it "guilty" of not monitoring her and allowing her to be mistreated. The school now owes Anna a compensation of 60,000 euros.
For years, since 2015, he had to endure insults and harassment from one of his classmates. He was only 12 years old and in seventh grade in Pescara. "He told me 'you are a dirty girl. You are ugly, fat...", she says. "This happened in the classroom, during recess, in the corridors. He never left me alone. I managed to talk and repeat to myself: "Why me? What is wrong with me?'
Until he decided to denounce the constant verbal violence.
"After years of resistance, I broke out. I no longer slept at night. Until that moment I hoped I wouldn't have to ask for help. I told myself it would all be over. It was enough to be silent. Instead he moved on. Every day was worse. So, one day after another insult, I threw the books that were on the table, on the floor, and ran to the director".
At that moment Anna decided to confess how much she was suffering. "I went to the directorate with the only friend I had - she remembers, as she says that that situation made her lose 20 kilograms and forced her to change schools, losing the year - I had the whole class against me, I felt that everyone was laughing at me.
I thought my parents wouldn't believe me. I was weighed down by the judgment of everyone around me. I was afraid of the consequences of revenge. I wasn't going out anymore. I wasn't sleeping." It took eight years of court hearings thanks to the lawyer Giacomo Cecchinelli from Pescara, to get the deserved justice.
"It took me time to understand that I was not at fault - she explains -. I had to learn to ask for help. To my parents. To psychologists. And I realized that I was not wrong". He tried to seek the same help from the professors, who, as explained in the minutes, "ignored my complaints. They minimized them. Until the bully was suspended for seven days. When he came back, it started again. And the teachers always denied everything."
Today Anna is a girl who has overcome every trauma and has a message for all children.
"Don't be ashamed to ask for help. The bullies are wrong, not the victims."
