News is those that force you to come to terms with yourself. If you are a parent, but even if you think it eventually will be. It arrives, appropriately, on the first page of the “Corriere della Sera”; parents punished, they will pay 450 thousand euro because their sons had raped a girl of twelve.

What sin have stained. According to the Court of Milan, "have not brought their children to the feelings”. Is not a “culpa in vigilando” i.e. "culpa in supervision", the one with which parents sometimes make the accounts - very rare indeed - but “culpa in educando” i.e. a “culpa in education”. A trial without precedent: it gives to the parents the duty to instruct and educate their children on the ethics of responsibility, to social awareness, relationship to civilization. A not indifferent burden. Just a matter for questioning about this pyramid built by the court: the good education produces a “gentle” growth in children, a personality put in a mainstream society according to the rules of citizenship and respect for others? In fact the answer is no. With the best intentions, it is not said it will happen.

So what is it? Strict liability, that is given, for example, to editor in chief that published a defamatory or libelous news. Or chairmen of football clubs, when there are incidents of hooliganism. To educate children is so complicated that to educate the crowds in the stadiums? Perhaps it is even more. The Milan court, however, has definitely established the educational neglect of children, investigating the background to reach to conclusions. Having done that, sent - with this sentence - a strong message to parents: you are responsible for your children, you can’t keep out of yourself, you can’t deposit them in kindergarten, in supplementary lesson after school-time, or in front of the computer or TV, you can’t ignore their companies, how they spend their free time.

The role that the judiciary has decided to play in this circumstance should not be underestimated, but could undoubtedly, beyond the specific case, given the severity of the episode charged to the boys to open a new chapter of substitution. No more political but educational. That justice has also an educating task no one discusses, of course. The sentence imposed by the court of Milan can be a useful shake. Bringing the world of children is a choice that imposes duties without exceptions.

Translated by Clara Picciotto