Viale Colombo was filled with students, parents, teachers and citizens. A human cordon symbolically occupying the pedestrian crossings, as if wanting to protect with their bodies what the traffic lights cannot defend.
The march accompanied by whistles, voices, noise serves "to make ourselves heard, to break the deafening silence of the institutions" a few weeks after the tragic death of Beatrice Loi , the young student who was hit on those very crosswalks while she was going to school.
The students of the Alberti High School organized the demonstration, involving their classmates from other schools in Cagliari. They ask not to have to risk their lives for a fundamental right: to go to school safely. And this time, they will not accept being ignored.
Every morning, they hesitate at the pedestrian crossing, their hearts in their throats, while cars whizz by without slowing down. It might seem like a surreal scene, but it is the daily reality for the boys and girls who attend the schools of the capital.
"How much is the safety of a student worth?" is the question they launch as an accusation towards the Municipality and the institutions , tired of ignored requests and broken promises.
A speed bump, a traffic light, even a grandfather traffic cop: simple tools that could make the difference between a day of lessons and a crime headline. But nothing has been done yet. And that is precisely why they took to the streets today. Not just for themselves, but for all citizens.
Viale Colombo, the street that winds right in front of the Alberti Institute, has become the symbol of this battle. Every crossing is a leap into the unknown, every arrival at school seems like a stroke of luck rather than a certainty. For years, students have been talking about cars that ignore the stripes, about crazy speeds that transform a simple sidewalk into a minefield.
“We don’t want to end up in the next headlines,” they say with a firm voice.
