Little Maria Francesca, suffering from Down syndrome, is 12 years old and has a great love: dance . But someone has decided that she will not be able to participate in the coveted final essay.
The story comes from Foggia, and the disheartened parents, Giuseppina and Michele tell it.
Some time ago, they explain, also at the suggestion of the orthopedic doctor of the Child Jesus who follows the little girl, they decided to indulge her passion for dance and enroll her in a school .
«The little girl was enthusiastic, and we with her. But things didn't go at all as we expected," they explain. « In the early years, due to the pandemic and her poor health, Maria Francesca was forced to follow lessons in fits and starts . Last year we were finally counting on a full recovery. But on his return we had the first, unpleasant surprise».
The teachers decided, without consulting them, to remove her from her group of dancers and place her in another group made up of much younger girls. «For Maria Francesca it was a hard blow: too painful to see the other companions go on, too difficult to socialize with girls she didn't know at all , moreover with an evident age difference. But we bit the bullet and let him continue to attend the courses, hoping that the situation would stabilize».
Unfortunately it didn't end there. In February they discovered that the girl had been excluded from the essay to be held at the end of the year . “We learned it the hard way: by chance, chatting with other parents. The classmates attended by Maria Francesca have been preparing for the final essay for some time. Not her. “She can't follow, she can't keep time, she's awkward in her movements, she could screw up a year of work” the teacher told us without any difficulty or embarrassment».
And when they pointed out that she should at least have talked to them about it first, the answer was equally disarming: ""I didn't think about it, I took it for granted". Assumed our daughter was cut out. What could we do? Nothing, except to definitively withdraw Maria Francesca from that school, inflicting another pain against her will. Now the bitterness is great».
