The sexist insults directed at the mayor of Modica, the expert: "The educational void overwhelms these young people"

The case of the sexist insults directed at the mayor of Modica, Maria Monisteri, by a group of very young people, does not surprise those, like Dr. Giuseppe Raffa, a pedagogue, trainer, and coordinator of the Anti-Bullying Clinic of the Asp of Ragusa, who daily observe the behavioral drifts of new generations. For him, this episode is not an exception, but the umpteenth confirmation of a phenomenon that has been manifesting with increasing evidence for years.

Raffa speaks of boys and girls who grow up without fathers and without mothers, not in the biological sense, but in the educational one. Young people lacking the principles of responsibility and justice that traditionally belong to the paternal figure, and at the same time devoid of that maternal code that allows access to personal affectivity and that of others. A double void that produces adolescents unable to recognize limits, roles, boundaries.

According to the pedagogue, the small “virtual haters” who targeted Mayor Monisteri are just the latest example of a generation growing up in a terrifying educational void, in times marked by a true “parental abandonment”. There are no authoritative adults, credible role models, figures capable of providing guidance. And when adults retreat, young people fill that space with what they find: violence, cynicism, nihilism. It is that “new nihilism” that Umberto Galimberti talks about, a feeling of emptiness that translates into aggressive, impulsive, often cruel behaviors.

Daily reports, Raffa observes, tell of adolescents who no longer know the basic rules of civil coexistence: they attack peers, stab unknown contemporaries, assault adults. And on social media, they feel omnipotent. No one has taught them what digital responsibility means, and so they use posts and reels as clubs, words as stones. It is the logic of “social symmetry”: they believe that a professor or a mayor is on their same level, that they can insult them as one does in an act of cyberbullying, body shaming, or shit storm.

The Modica case demonstrates it: those kids demanded that the school be closed for a bit of wind, as if education were a nuisance to be suspended at the first opportunity. «School is now perceived as optional», observes Raffa, «and this is a very serious signal, because it is the only truly active educational presence left».

So what to do? For the educator, the answer is clear: return parents to their children. Young people need a real father and an authentic mother like air, not distracted, absent adults or those ready to defend their children even when they are completely wrong. Raffa expects public apologies, not justifications. «Admitting one's educational failures is good for adults and helps kids grow», he states.

But that's not enough. A deep reform of the Italian school system is needed, which has not been seriously reconsidered since the 1930s. A modern school, capable of keeping pace with today's youth, with teachers trained not only in subjects but also in pedagogical, empathetic, and technological skills. A school that knows how to read the kids, understand them, guide them.

In conclusion, Raffa invites families and institutions to a collective assumption of responsibility. «These kids are not lost», he says. «They are alone. And when a young person is alone, hatred becomes a refuge. It is up to us to offer them alternatives».