Italian
The National Coordination of Human Rights Teachers: “Violence is not an isolated incident but the sign of a deeper malaise involving families, schools, and the community.”
ANDRIA – The National Coordination of Teachers of Human Rights expresses deep concern over the news of the brawl that took place on the evening of August 17 in the heart of Andria, just steps away from Palazzo di Città, where two young men clashed and one sustained injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. An episode that, beyond its dynamics, cannot and must not be dismissed as just another crime story among many.
Every time violence creeps into relationships between young people, the entire community must reflect on the ground that allowed such a gesture to take root. The brutality of a quarrel that escalates, the impulse to strike instead of dialoguing, the act of fleeing as a way of avoiding responsibility—all of this points to a malaise that does not affect only those directly involved, but raises questions for society, families, and educational institutions as a whole.
From a socio-educational perspective, episodes of this kind highlight an urgency that can no longer be postponed: young people need strong role models, contexts in which frustration can find creative and non-violent expression, and adults capable of offering authentic, non-judgmental listening. The school and the broader educational community must once again take on a guiding role, so that conflicts become opportunities for learning rather than reasons for exclusion. Only a consistent investment in emotional, civic, and cultural education can restore meaning to relationships and provide young people with the tools to face tensions in a constructive way.
It is precisely in this context that the urgent need arises to significantly strengthen the culture of legality within schools. This is not about proclamations, but about concrete and consistent pathways capable of instilling in young people the understanding that respect for rules is not an external imposition, but a necessary condition for living healthy relationships, safeguarding one’s own dignity, and recognizing that of others.
The CNDDU firmly believes that educating for legality means providing tools to interpret conflicts, transform them into opportunities for constructive dialogue, and free energies currently trapped in anger or resentment. Schools must become the privileged place for this kind of education: a civic arena where individual and collective responsibility is learned, practiced, and passed on.
The incident in Andria reminds us of our shared responsibility: not to passively witness the news, but to choose to build together, day by day, a stronger social fabric in which mutual respect becomes the natural language of the new generations.
