Vanzago, director and five teachers of a nursery under investigation for child abuse

They are accused of ill-treatment of 17 children: the director and five teachers of a private nursery school in Vanzago they would have locked the little ones in the bathroom to sleep, they would have punished them by placing them detention in a closetthey would kicked and elbowed to then attribute, with the parents, the small injuries to games between companions. The investigating judge of Milan, Ileana Ramundo, has signed a precautionary measure order against them.

The investigations began after some students of the Puecher-Olivetti institute in Rho recounted the alleged ill-treatment they allegedly witnessed between March and early Mayduring their internships within the structure.

One told the investigators: «On the first day I had already realized that the children were treated a little badly. I remember that they were seized by the arms in a somewhat forced, perhaps violent way. There was little care for them. I realized that many times the teachers cursed and sweared at the children».

Another: «One day we were in the dining room and there was a little girl who was crying insistently. Suddenly one of the teachers grabbed the little girl violently and put her in the high chair. The little girl, continuing to cry, tried to get up but the teacher held her tightly preventing her from moving. After a while, as she wouldn’t stop crying, she’d decide to take the child and close her in the rest room, leaving her alone in the dark».

Not only that: the nursery educators also threw balls at the children, and “attributed a score to the parts of the body affected”. “One day I saw the teacher throwing balls at a one-year-old boy who was learning to walk and was trying to get up.” And again: «I also happened to see both teachers throw their slippers at the children». It’s not over: “To wake up the children, the educators took them by the sides, under the armpits and immediately put them on their feet, causing them to crywithout then consoling them”.

The director of the kindergarten, interceptedhe has declared: “You have to play with these things, because if it is seen that I am shouting at a child, is it abuse? No, that’s what the lawyer also told me, they start from the moment they see slaps, hair pulling, vomiting and you make them eat vomit. That is abuse.”

According to the investigating judge Ileana Ramundo, the teachers under investigation would not have “self-control skills” and for this they were banned from the profession. The testimonies of the interns, according to the magistrates, would be “genuine and concordant”, but the lawyers of the six suspects retort that the witnesses would have been “discarded” during the internship and would have grounds for resentment.