Students at the Liceo Classico G. de Bottis in Torre del Greco stayed out of classrooms on 20 October 2026 to protest disruption caused by ongoing structural works at the school.
According to reporting by Il Mattino, the students said unfinished renovation work had left parts of the school taped off and inaccessible, making normal study difficult.
Taped-off areas and a fenced hole in the courtyard
The students pointed to several fenced-off areas inside the historic school building, including spaces they said could not be used.
Among the problems cited were inaccessible areas, including the boys' gymnasium, and a fenced hole in the school courtyard. Students described the situation as incompatible with regular lessons.
The works concern the first floor of the school building in Viale Gen. Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, where the Città Metropolitana di Napoli had planned renovation and safety interventions.
The school leadership had previously described the works differently. According to local reporting, the headteacher characterized them as ordinary interventions, with no grave or imminent danger. The students' protest on 20 October presented the opposite experience: accessible space reduced, daily routines disrupted, and conditions they consider unsuitable for study.
Whether the courtyard hole or the boys' gymnasium have been formally declared unsafe by the competent authorities has not been verified in the available sources.
Double shifts and afternoon lessons
The works have also reshaped the school timetable.
Maintenance work led to a double-shift schedule, with afternoon lessons reported in the 12:15 to 16:25 slot. That change is central to the students' complaint: less time in full use of the building, and a school day pushed into the afternoon for some classes.
According to one source, around one hundred students marched through the town centre to draw attention to the new timetable and to ask for intervention by the provincial authority, which oversees upper-secondary school buildings.
For readers unfamiliar with the system, double shifts mean that classrooms are used in rotation by different groups because the full building is not available at the same time. In practice, it can affect transport, lunch breaks, extracurricular activities, and study time at home.
A local protest within a wider student mobilization
The De Bottis protest was not only about the building.
On 19 October 2026, the school was reported occupied by students, with a banner reading "De Bottis occupato" displayed outside. That action was linked by ANSA to students' concerns about their future and fears surrounding the Decreto Scuola.
The 20 October protest over structural works therefore sits within a broader mobilization. The available sources do not clarify whether the occupation reported on 19 October continued into the following day, or how long the 20 October demonstration outside classrooms lasted.
What remains unclear
Several practical questions remain open.
There is no verified completion date or updated official timeline for the works. There is also no verified later response from the headteacher or the Città Metropolitana di Napoli to the complaints raised on 20 October.
Students remain in a building where, by their account, renovation is incomplete, some spaces are not accessible, and afternoon shifts continue. The school administration's earlier assessment did not identify a serious or imminent danger, but that assessment predates the latest student complaints and does not resolve the reported loss of usable space.
