The Art School of Ravenna has instituted
menstrual leave for female students
who request it.
"Probably - explained the principal, Gianluca Dradi - for a school it is the
first initiative of this kind in Italy
".
The resolution with which the school council of the 'Nervi-Severini' artistic high school launched the initiative was published in the school's online bulletin board in recent days.
In particular, it allows female students suffering from
dysmenorrhea
the possibility of being absent for a maximum of two days a month without this absence being calculated among those which must be considered for the validity of the school year.
In fact, the law provides that students must attend at least three quarters of the annual timetable in order to be admitted to the ballots: consequently, one quarter of the annual timetable is the maximum number of possible absences for the validity of the school year.
However, the law allows power schools to identify exceptions for justified and documented absences.
As a rule, in all schools, for example, absence due to certified illnesses is foreseen as a derogation.
The representatives of the student component in the 'Nervi-Severini' school council pointed out how many girls suffer from menstrual cramps so strong as to interfere with the performance of normal activities, collecting 16 testimonies from their classmates in this regard.
They therefore asked to apply in the school, in analogy with the institution of menstrual leave now regulated in Spain, a form of facilitation for the absences that this condition can determine.
"The promotion of citizenship skills, which constitutes one of the educational objectives of the schools, also passes through the transposition of the legitimate requests of the students who are put in a position to ascertain how the problems can be managed through a democratic process that takes place within the bodies college kids,” says Principal
Dradi
.
According to the approved regulation,
female students with certified dysmenorrhea will have the "possibility of producing only one medical certificate a year
, attesting to this syndrome, in order to be recognized up to two days a month as exceptions to the attendance requirement of at least three quarters of the personalized annual timetable, absences which therefore do not affect the maximum number of hours of those allowed for the purposes of the validity of the school year, without prejudice to the need for the presentation of the justification of the parents (or of the adult students), by means of a web booklet".
The Ravenna high school directed by Dradi has already established the regulation for 'career aliases', i.e. the possibility of adopting a preferred name for transgender students.
A few years ago, he also caused a sensation for the way in which he reacted to an inscription written on a school wall ('the principal is gay): "through these regulations - he said - we communicate to male and female students that the school recognizes their problems and their needs and intends, as far as possible, to address them to create a welcoming and inclusive environment".