Italian prosecutors have opened two probes into an incident of bullying involving a secondary school student with Down Syndrome whose ordeal was filmed and posted on the Internet.
The episode, which became public over the weekend, prompted expressions of horror and disgust on Monday, along with claims that the latest dramatic case of bullying is only the tip of the iceberg. The identity of the boy shown in the two short videos, apparently made with a mobile phone, is still unknown but investigators said both he and his persecutors would soon be found.
In the footage the boy is taunted, insulted and kicked by one student in particular as others look on. The location seems to be a classroom and the people visible appear to be about 16 years of age.
Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni condemned the incident in a letter to a national newspaper on Monday and said he had set up a working group to study bullying in schools.
The group is to work out a plan to get teachers, students, families, police and institutions working together to beat the phenomenon. "The phenomenon must not be underestimated," he said.
In the meantime, on Fioroni's initiative, the Education Ministry has applied to be made a civil plaintiff in the case of the Down student, saying the episode has caused damage to the school system.
The case exploded after an Italian girl unconnected with the episode informed a support group for families with Down members that the video footage was available on the site of Google's Italian search engine.
It was in a section called 'entertaining videos'.
The support group, Vividown, filed a complaint to Milan prosecutors who have opened a defamation probe. Meanwhile their colleagues in Rome have started one focusing on the physical violence seen in the video. Investigators believe they will be able to quickly identify the person who put the video on the Internet and from there the students involved in the incident.
In one of the videos appears to record the brief presence of a female teacher. Some of the students perform Nazi salutes and the letters SS appear on the blackboard at one point.
"This is the mentality that says you have to keep only the ones that are handsome, intelligent and perfect. The 'pure' race, basically. The others can be chucked away". Edoardo Censi, president of Vividown.
Italy's Family Minister Rosy Bindi was among the politicians who warned that the latest instance is symptomatic of a wider problem.
"An alarm needs to be sounded over bullying, which is spreading in Italy," she said.
"The phenomenon must be studied, investigated. Families, schools and institutions must be made more responsible".
