MONTIGNANO (ANCONA) – The funeral of Leonardo, the 15-year-old who took his own life on Sunday by shooting himself in the mouth with his father’s gun, ended with white balloons flying in the sky. Shortly before his death he told his parents that he wanted to change school, or even start studying privately, because he could no longer bear those unbearable chants behind his back, the slaps on his private parts, the nipples squeezed in the gym, the voices repeating the his name “performing feminine deeds, throughout the school day to the point of sometimes forcing him to use earphones to avoid hearing such teasing about his surname using methods that are offensive to a person’s sexuality”, the parents wrote in the complaint for bullying, which they presented on Monday. When the son was already no longer there.
“During the service I received a message from a person close to a girl who had reported acts of bullying in that same school last year – said the lawyer Pia Perricci as she left the church – I will pass on the news and her contact to the investigators. In front of Leonardo’s coffin, his mother and I promised that we will finish this battle. We are not blaming the entire class or the entire institute, we are just asking that those responsible pay for what they did.”
Today the carabinieri will continue their interrogations, hearing other classmates of Leonardo and also his teachers. Yesterday they heard from the support teacher in whom the teenager had confided a few days before deciding to end it all and he explained that he had indeed collected Leonardo’s confidences that day, during recess, but that the boy had not done anything mention of bullying. “He just told me that he would like to change school, and since he had just changed it I reminded him that there is compulsory schooling up to the age of 16”. According to the parents, there were three bullies who persecuted their son, two boys and a girl, who however denied everything. The Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara asked for further details, while the school, which in the aftermath of the events had sent an open letter in which it invited the children to “speak and not badmouth” yesterday sent a new statement to say that “any reflection or information inherent to Leonardo and this dramatic event can be useful in reconstructing the facts and preventing others from experiencing such painful situations”.
The tragedy of Senigallia
Leonardo, the suicidal 15-year-old, had tried to seek help. “He confided in a teacher, he ignored him”
from our correspondent Caterina Giusberti
The boys in the square to bid farewell to Leo
There are hundreds of boys and girls in the square of Montignano for the funeral, so many who don’t fit in the church, they fill the whole square. An army made up of sweatshirts, jeans, tears, pimples, white roses. There are young people and elderly people, mothers, grandparents, fathers, small children who wipe their tears with their sleeves: it is an entire community that cries, distraught, that of Montignano.
Leonardo’s funeral was attended by his elementary school classmates and those at Panzini, his teachers, even the headmaster of the institute, accused by his parents of having ignored the 15-year-old’s malaise.
“Life is fragile, handle with care”
“Can we still do something for Leonardo, to get him out of the hole of anguish and fear in which his life ended? We are here to say yes” says the parish priest, Don Emanuele Lauretanifrom the altar. And he continues: “Many things have been said about Leonardo’s death and this is not the time to repeat them. But let’s remember that with calm and clarity we will be able to shed light on the circumstances of his death. Let responsibility flourish within us. We are called to guard ourselves delicately. Life is fragile, handle with care.”
senigallia
Leonardo’s grandmother: “My grandson was sensitive, we need to talk more about violence at school”
from our correspondent Caterina Giusberti
Mom: “He’s an angel now”
Leonardo’s mother, Vicktoryia, of Russian origins, also speaks at the end. “I would like to thank you all for your closeness in these difficult days – he says – Leonardo Alessandro Raffaele was his full name. October 14 (the day her son’s body was found ed) the Orthodox church celebrates the apparition of the Madonna. Leonardo is now experiencing a new transition from an angel. He protected me always and everywhere, as he protected his friends. I want to read you this phrase from Michael Jackson, who for him was the best of the best: “In a world full of hate, we must still have the courage to hope. In a world full of anger, we must still have the courage to confront. In a world full of desperation, of dreaming. In a world full of mistrust, to believe. I believe in earthly and divine justice.”
“Hello Leo, our friend”
Next to the altar there is a sign with some notes, which some kids from the oratory wrote last night. “Leo I wanted to tell you that I didn’t think you were so sick as to commit such an act. These days I had difficulty sleeping because I thought about all the years spent together, and that if I had known before I could have helped you”, we read in the one at the top right.
A little boy places a rose with a stuffed panda attached to it on the altar. Another reads a message: “Dear Leo, we are here with this enormous pain and words are hard to find. Never before have we seen them as a precious thing that should not be wasted. We will always carry you in our hearts, we would like to be able to say some words of comfort but we don’t know which ones. Hello Leo, our friend”, and the applause starts, after which the coffin is transported to the cemetery.
