During the recent edition of the National Classical High School Night, an event celebrated in 355 classical high schools throughout Italy, a controversy arose regarding the preventive censorship of a teacher.
As it reports The Gazette, the matter concerned a video broadcast in all the participating institutes, produced by the National Committee of Classical Lyceums for the occasion. According to some reports from students, in a school in the Veneto region, parts of this video have been cut.
The students said in a statement that the censored parts of the video contained images of a same-sex couple and a boy applying mascara. The pupils believe that this action was “extremely serious and harmful to the freedom of expression of all of us”, and complain that behaviors of this type, if not worse, have been repeated over the years, even leading to bullying episodes. The students decided to spread the message of what happened within the various class groups.
According to the teacher who carried out the “censorship”, however, there was no violation of the right to freedom of expression. The teacher claims that he felt that some images could offend the sensitivity of parents and seventh grade students who attended the event. The latter, according to the teacher, were not present of their own free will, but had been formally invited via institutional communication.
The director of the institute commented on the incident, stating that she arrived late for the event and that she only learned of the matter later, from the same teacher who made the cut. Contacted by the newspaper, the principal confirmed her intention to further discuss the subject with the teacher and the students, inviting them to an interview to clarify the matter.
