The dropping of charges against a school warden for groping the buttocks of a 17-year-old student for ten seconds sparked controversy in Italy on Thursday, sparking outrage from student unions and influencers.
According to the court in Rome, the touches, which lasted “between five and ten seconds”, as the victim denounced and their author recognized, “do not constitute a crime”.
The “suddenness of the action, without any insistence on the action of touch”, which is “almost a touch”, does not allow “characterizing the libidinal or pleasurable intention generally required in criminal law”, estimated the court, quoted by the daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
The court therefore rejected the requests of the prosecutor, who had asked for three and a half years in prison against the 66-year-old guard, who admitted to having touched the student climbing the stairs but assured this. “jokingly”.
This court decision sparked protests from the students’ association of Lazio (the region that includes Rome): “We are outraged by the reasoning of the judgment (…) Once again, touch is not recognized as such, this time because of its duration.”, protested its President Tullia Narciso, quoted by the daily newspaper Il Fatto quotidiano.
“We want to feel safe everywhere, especially in school, which aims to teach people to recognize and eliminate violence and discrimination,” she concluded.
Following this controversial verdict, many students posted videos on social media filming themselves touching their bodies, simulating a touch for ten seconds that seemed to last forever.
This gesture of solidarity with the victim was also picked up by the Italian actor Paolo Camilli, known for his role in the series “The White Lotus” (HBO), whose video was shared by the peninsula’s most famous influencer, Chiara Ferragni.