QWhat happened in the night of July 7 in Palermo shook all of Italy. Seven boys are under investigation for sexual assault against a 19-year-old girl. It was immediate everyone’s indignation, disbelief in the face of an extremely violent and petty act. And now the hard one speech by a professor from Palermo who is active in the cultural scene of the city (she is also a writer, radio speaker and theater actress) it’s got a lot of people thinking. Especially the parents.
The atrocity of gang rape in Palermo
Immediately after having raped the girl in seven, the suspects left the abandoned construction site of the Foro Italico in the city to go to the rotisserie. Fortunately, the victim of this terrible violence, despite being in a precarious state of health, managed to call an ambulance. And to see a doctor immediately.
In these hours they are leaving some details that add atrocities to the story. Like the fact that the boys (all between 18 and 22, with the exception of one, who was a minor at the time) decided to make some videos during the violence. The guy who shot them would have said he wanted to send them “to whoever needs them” and then immediately delete them from his device. «I don’t want to know anything about this story», he would have written, after defining what happened «a mass rape.
Also in some chats, then, one of the suspects would have added: «Last night nothing, if I think about it for a bit, I feel disgusted because we were 100 dogs over a cat, I had only seen one thing about this in porn videos. We were too many, honestly I was disgusted a bit, but what was I supposed to do? Meat is meat.”
Professor Giovanna Corrao’s questions to Palermo parents
As the wave of outrage over what happened continues, a teacher from the Sicilian capital has published a video on social media in which she addresses her Palermitan parents directly. A video that in a few hours has exceeded a million views and in which Giovanna Corrao (who is also a writer, radio speaker and theater actress) does not mince words.
“I have to tell you the truth to your face, because if I don’t tell you the truth, you won’t tell it to you. You are so addicted to hypocrisy… Yes, I’m talking to you! You don’t want to hear the truth even when your conscience speaks to you in the morning in the mirror». The truth in question is one: «We are a bunch of losers! I’ll do it too. Civic education is now an abstract concept because in practice our children rape and rape young girls.
Where is this failure? According to Giovanna Corrao in the absence of knowledge of their children and the inability to educate them in positive and human values. «Something has gone wrong in our parenting project for the past 40 years».
And he added. «Keep the city dirty as you keep your inner house dirty because you are cowards and hypocrites. You make yourself always and only selfies. One understood nothing. You mind your own business and leave the children in front of the cell phones. You have to supervise your children».
A moment of the demonstration organized by the “Non una di meno” association in Palermo after the news of the gang violence that took place in the area of the Foro Italico. A procession crossed the streets traveled by the herd that dragged the victim, from Vucciria to the abandoned construction site of the sewage collector where the rape took place. Credit: ANSA/Not one less
“It’s also about your son because you don’t know your son”
The invective of the teacher of Letters and Philosophy in Palermo continue hard. “You don’t function as a father, as a mother, as a social structure, as a professor, as a teacher and as a grandfather.”
“And even when you think you know your children, you pocket the possibility that you don’t really know them. Your children tend not to behave well when they are out». The reason? “Why behave yourself […] is equivalent to being considered pranks…».
Thus, according to Professor Corrao, one is not a parent just because they bring children into the world: “You must become one”. And she invites: «It’s also about your child. Why don’t you know your child…». Very strong words which, however, speak very clearly of an educational emergency which is there for all to see. And of which each of us should be aware.
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