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Blind English Teacher Excluded From Dublin Trip as Principal Cites Liability Rules

The school cites duty-of-care liability that it says cannot be reconciled with informal funding offers.

Overview

  • Jacopo Lilli, a 40-year-old English teacher at Russell Newton in Scandicci, will not accompany his class on a Feb. 25–Mar. 3 language trip to Dublin.
  • The principal invoked culpa in vigilando and the requirement that chaperones assume civil and criminal responsibility, noting standard supervision ratios of one teacher per fifteen students.
  • Students and parents had requested Lilli’s inclusion and offered to cover additional costs, but the school said it cannot adopt solutions without clear regulatory coverage or use public funds informally.
  • The administration proposed that Lilli travel at his own expense as an extra teacher or use vacation days, proposals he rejects as incompatible with the trip’s curricular nature.
  • Lilli maintains he could manage the class with colleagues handling logistics, calls the case emblematic of disability discrimination, and the Scandicci municipality urged that a more inclusive solution would have sent a positive message.