Naples: A 15-year-old boy was beaten and insulted because he was Ukrainian. He was attacked by a mob after his exam.

A serious episode of xenophobic violence is said to have occurred on the morning of June 16th in Naples, against a fifteen-year-old student of Ukrainian origin. The boy, Andrii S., had just finished the written mathematics exam for his eighth-grade year at the Fava Gioia Institute in Vico Trone when he was allegedly attacked by a group of his peers.

According to the complaint filed with the Dante Police Station, the young man had lingered outside the school with some classmates to discuss the test he had just taken. At that moment, he was allegedly approached by five boys.

Questions about origins and insults

According to the reconstruction contained in the complaint, one of the group members asked the fifteen-year-old his nationality. When the boy replied that he was Ukrainian, the insults began.

Offensive and denigrating remarks directed at both the young man and his country of origin allegedly preceded the physical attack. The boy was allegedly grabbed from behind, pinned down by the neck, and then slapped and punched in the face and body. Before the beating, he was also allegedly spat on.

The escape and the hospitalization

The fifteen-year-old managed to escape the pack by taking refuge inside the school. Emergency services arrived on the scene, and the boy was transported by ambulance to the CTO hospital in Naples.

Doctors diagnosed him with several injuries that were deemed curable within five days.

Making the incident even more disturbing was the behavior of the alleged main attacker, who reportedly approached the classroom where the victim was, openly claiming responsibility for the beating, even in front of the officers who intervened.

The complaint and solidarity

The case was brought to public attention by Natali F., a Neapolitan artist who knows the young man through her art studio and describes him as "a polite, sensitive boy with a profound passion for culture."

The matter was also reported to Francesco Emilio Borrelli, MP for the Green and Left Alliance, who announced parliamentary initiatives to shed light on the incident.

Borrelli: "An aberrant act."

"What happened to Andrii is of unprecedented gravity," Borrelli declared. "It is an abhorrent act that combines the barbarity of group bullying with the ideological poison of racism and xenophobia. It is unacceptable that a fifteen-year-old boy should suffer humiliation and violence upon leaving school, on the very day that should have been an important moment in his education."

The MP expressed solidarity with the young man, his mother, and those who support him, announcing that he would submit a parliamentary question to the relevant ministers.

"Schools must be places of inclusion and growth," he added, "and not a theater for hate speech. We must determine all responsibilities and take appropriate action against the perpetrators of the attack. We will not retreat in the fight against violence and discrimination."