Adro, April 2, 2010. Forty-two kindergarten and elementary school children, many of whom are foreigners, receive an envelope in class to be delivered to their parents. The envelope contains a letter from the school headmaster addressed to families not in good standing with the canteen payment. From this moment, children of defaulting families will not be able to access the service and will have to leave the school during meal times. Following the spread of the news about the circular, a businessman from Brescia decides to donate 10.000 euros to the institution that manages the canteen service, accompanying the gesture with a letter entitled “I’m not in”, in which he accuses the entire community of Adro not to be in solidarity with those who suffer as a result of the economic crisis. The story jumps to the forefront of local and national media that contribute to polarize public opinion “with” or “against” the choice adopted by the municipality, to “with” or “against” the entrepreneur who made the donation. Instead, the humiliation suffered by those forty-two children remains almost completely ignored: from the circular delivered in the presence of their companions, to the media pillory, to the spectacularization of the story. The contribution below offers a reconstruction of the story.
