Overview
- Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara proposed permitting metal detectors in schools where leaders formally request them to counter weapons on campus.
- Principals from high‑risk neighborhoods dismissed routine screening as impractical, warning of bottlenecks at entry and blind spots in courtyards and outside gates.
- Student groups criticized the plan as a securitarian turn that would militarize schools, urging solutions focused on education and social support.
- At Ponticelli’s Marie Curie institute, coordinated surprise checks with the Prefecture and police have been carried out sparingly over two school years without finding weapons, and some pupils reported feeling safer.
- The Prefecture has expanded the portable‑check model to dozens of schools in the Naples area, underscoring unresolved questions about who authorizes operations and how they are resourced.