For the fifth consecutive year, the 'Rummo' Scientific High School in Benevento opened its doors to officers from across the State Police, hosting a structured day of workshops, demonstrations, and direct engagement designed to bring students face to face with the institutions that govern public life. The initiative, titled 'A Scuola di polizia - Education for Legality and Familiarization with the Police,' drew students from the school's third, fourth, and fifth years, drawing a level of participation and engagement that organizers described as genuinely enthusiastic. Events like this one occupy a particular place in civic education: they shift the relationship between young people and law enforcement from abstract to tangible, from theoretical to experiential.
Institutions at the Classroom Door
The morning opened with institutional greetings from Giovanni Leuci, Chief of Police of Benevento, who set the tone by underscoring the educational value of the collaboration between schools and law enforcement. His remarks reflected a broader principle that underpins initiatives of this kind: that trust between citizens and public institutions is not inherited but built, and that the earlier it is cultivated, the more durable it tends to be. School principal Annamaria Morante, a consistent advocate for civic education and legality-based programming within the school, welcomed the event as a natural extension of the institute's commitment to awareness and prevention.
The framing of the event as both educational and orientational was deliberate. Beyond raising awareness, the day was structured to give students a realistic picture of the different operational branches within the State Police - what they do, how they work, and the professional culture that shapes their practice. For students approaching the end of secondary school, this kind of direct exposure carries weight that a textbook description of law enforcement simply cannot replicate.
From Crime Scenes to Cyberbullying: A Wide-Ranging Curriculum
The sessions covered ground that was as varied as it was carefully chosen. Officers from different specialized units led workshops on drug use among adolescents, road safety, and the civic importance of following rules - topics that speak directly to the daily realities of young people rather than to abstract legal principles. The participation of the Postal Police drew particular interest, with officers walking students through the risks that accompany everyday online activity: cyberbullying, digital scams, the mechanics of social network manipulation, and the fundamentals of protecting personal data online.
That segment of the day reflects a shift in how law enforcement engages with younger audiences. Online threats - from identity fraud to coordinated harassment - now constitute a significant portion of the cases that units like the Postal Police handle. Explaining these risks to teenagers in concrete, accessible terms serves a dual purpose: it informs potential victims and discourages behavior that students might not immediately recognize as harmful or illegal. The session on digital privacy, in particular, addresses a gap that formal curricula across much of Italy still struggle to close adequately.
The canine unit provided a different kind of lesson - operational and visceral rather than discursive. Demonstrations with dogs trained to detect drugs and explosives gave students an unfiltered look at the sensory and procedural dimensions of police fieldwork. The Forensic Police unit went further still, recreating an actual crime scene within the school's premises. Students observed evidence collection techniques and investigative methodology firsthand, gaining a working sense of how forensic science intersects with criminal procedure - a combination that popular media routinely distorts.
Why These Encounters Matter Beyond the Event Itself
Legality education programs of this kind rest on a well-established premise in civic pedagogy: that familiarity reduces alienation. Young people who understand what police officers actually do, who see them as professionals with distinct competencies rather than as a uniform and undifferentiated authority, are more likely to engage with institutions rather than withdraw from them. This is not a minor social dividend. Erosion of institutional trust among younger populations is a documented concern in many European democracies, and it tends to compound over time if left unaddressed.
The Benevento initiative, now in its fifth edition, has evidently found a format that works. The combination of seminars, demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and direct conversation between officers and students allows for a range of learning styles and levels of engagement. No single activity carries the full weight of the message; the cumulative effect of the day is what registers. That the event returns year after year, and that each iteration draws meaningful student participation, suggests the model has earned its place in the school's educational calendar.
Whether similar programs exist elsewhere in Campania or across Italy more broadly is a question worth asking. Civic education that connects directly with operational public institutions - rather than confining itself to formal legal concepts - remains less widespread than its results would seem to justify. The 'Rummo' school's continued investment in this format offers a practical reference point for institutions considering how to close the distance between young citizens and the state agencies that serve them.
