Student debate over naming high school after Impastato in Partinico: “We had voted for Livatino,” students explain.

Last Updated: March 17, 2024

Partinico, la controversia sul liceo da intitolare a Impastato: «Avevamo votato Livatino», spiegano gli studenti

The students are not happy to be accused of not wanting, for their high school in Turrisi district, in Partinico, the name of Peppino Impastato and mother Felicia Bartolotta, for ideological or cultural reasons. They feel betrayed by those who should have taken their opinion into account. Because the students had chosen another mafia victim, the blessed judge Rosario Livatino. Therefore, they also consider it a speculation to cast shadows on an alleged anti-legal mentality of young people.

The tortuous process that led to the change of denomination has practically ended in recent months, with the approval of the prefecture and the majority vote of the school council of the high school, which has given the green light to the change of name in favor of the left-wing activist Peppino Impastato, who died at the hands of the mafia, and his mother, Felicia Bartolotta. The issue is thorny and the students interviewed prefer not to be named.

“The no – says one of the students – is not for Peppino Impastato. I would like to remind you that a branch of the high school is named after Impastato and also the street where our institute is located. The problem is the method, because our choice had fallen on another character with an important profile.” In fact, two years ago, in an initial survey, the students mostly chose Livatino: Impastato and his mother were not among the names.

Recently, a second survey was conducted and almost a thousand out of 1,300 students asked to stop the name change process. “This choice does not reflect the will of a large part of the student community,” says one of the students. The current municipal administration also expressed its opinion against the change of name of the high school. There have been many controversies focusing on the figure of councillor Sergio Bonnì, accused of always politically pushing for the maintenance of the current name, as Savarino was very close to his father in a relationship of friendship.

“I pose a problem of method and not certainly on the name of Impastato, a great icon of the anti-mafia,” Bonnì retorts. “It would be correct in my opinion to follow the will of the students. Instead, someone, with arrogance, continued to push for the name of Impastato. On one hand, they profess to be democrats, but in reality they behaved in the exact opposite. I wonder why the fuss over Savarino, history has handed us many illustrious controversial figures to whom streets and squares have been named.”