The release of a school guard who had fiddled with the buttocks of a 17-year-old student for ten seconds sparked a controversy in Italy on Thursday, arousing the indignation of student associations and influencers. According to the Rome court, these touches having lasted “between five and ten seconds”, as denounced by the victim and recognized their author, “do not constitute an offense”.
The “suddenness of the action, without any insistence in the action of touching”, which is “almost a touch”, does not make it possible to “characterize the libidinous or lustful intention generally required by criminal law”, a estimated the court, quoted by the daily Il Corriere della Sera.
The court therefore rejected the requisitions of the prosecution, who had requested three and a half years of imprisonment against the guard, aged 66, who had admitted to having touched the student while she was climbing stairs but assured to have done so ” jokingly “.
Response on social networks
This court decision sparked protests from the Association of Students in Lazio (the region encompassing Rome): “We are outraged by the reasoning behind the judgment (…) Once again, touching is not recognized as such, this times because of its duration”, protested its president Tullia Narciso, quoted by the daily Il Fatto quotidiano. “We want to feel safe everywhere, and especially at school, which should teach to recognize and eliminate violence and discrimination,” she concluded.
After this controversial judgment, many students posted videos on social networks where they filmed themselves touching their bodies by simulating a touch for ten seconds, which seemed to last an eternity.
This gesture of solidarity with the victim was also taken up by the Italian actor Paolo Camilli, known for his role in the series The White Lotus (HBO) and whose video was shared by the most famous influencer of the peninsula, Chiara Ferragni.