An 11-year-old girl was reportedly attacked and beaten by a group of peers during a walk in the center of Foligno, in the province of Perugia. She sustained minor injuries, for which emergency medical personnel, where she was treated, estimated she would recover within seven days. The provincial command confirmed that the mother has filed a formal complaint with the Foligno military, who are investigating the incident.
The incident, which occurred in the afternoon a few days ago, was reportedly filmed on cell phones by the children present . "My daughter had gone for a walk in the center of Foligno with a friend, at a time perfectly appropriate for her age," her mother recounted. Once home, however, she explained what had happened. The eleven-year-old was supposed to meet two girls her age in Piazza San Domenico. Once there, they convinced her to move to a more isolated area where a boy "began repeatedly asking another girl if he could hit my daughter. After much insistence, the girl agreed, and the boy knocked her to the ground."
The eleven-year-old, whose phone was also allegedly snatched away by the attackers, "was then grabbed by the arm by a girl her age and dragged away to an even more hidden spot," her mother continues. " There she was surrounded by a group of peers, boys and girls, about ten of them. Some began filming the scene with their cell phones, laughing . Every word she tried to say earned her a slap in the face. Finally, one of the girls grabbed her neck and threw her to the ground."
The woman, writing in the Corriere dell'Umbria, also makes an appeal: "I am addressing the community, schools, and families. This is not a "simple" fight between kids. This is bullying, it is violence, it is oppression. It is a sign that something has broken, in the bonds between education, social interaction, and responsibility . Who filmed? Who laughed? Who watched without intervening? I would like a spotlight to be shone. So that educational and social institutions don't downplay it. So that adults talk to their children. And so that no girl should feel alone, humiliated, or in danger in the center of her own city."
