MODENA. A chat with an unequivocal title that some residents had created to rate the physical appearance of their colleagues, a chat that started going from cell phone to cell phone until it reached at least one of the victims of sexist judgements, who reported the incident to the teacher and director of the school, asking that measures be taken as soon as possible. The case that in recent days has affected the school of Emergency Medicine in Modena and which could also lead to measures by the disciplinary commission ends with an internal investigation launched by the rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Carlo Adolfo Porro. This was underlined by Porro himself, who learned “with bewilderment the news, of which we were not aware”. It does not appear, at least for the moment, that the consequences of the incident have crossed the walls of the school, in short, there are no legal aftermaths. The offending chat no longer exists today, it was closed by the director of the school, Luca Roncucci, once he learned of what was happening. The director of the school summoned both the creators of the chat and the authors of the sexist comments and once an apology came from them with the promise that it would never happen again, the teacher, also accepting the point of view of some postgraduates who wanted avoid worse consequences for the fellow perpetrators of the social misdeed, he wrote to all those attending, expressing his regret and the hope that such episodes will not be repeated in the future within the school.
But what was actually in those social conversations that apparently involved several male residents? Apparently the chat contained judgments on the physical appearance of the young women registered with a judgment, such as a vote in an exam, but not only: it seems that some of these comments were also accompanied by photographs snatched on social networks always of the appreciated or less from the authors of the comments. It is not known how long everything went on, but it has been clarified that the case broke out within the Modena Emergency Medicine school when the young people came into contact with the chats or in any case with part of what was shared among the members and which concerned them. Now that the rector has also officially taken a position on the incident, it remains to be seen whether or not the ‘indicted’ trainees risk disciplinary action. The story of the sexist chat also leads to another fact, perhaps directly connected, however, which makes the postgraduate students discuss again. Due to the insufficient spaces at the Policlinico di Modena, male and female students would be forced to change clothes, and then undress, in the same space before starting work. Women and men together. This aspect too would, it seems, have contributed to fueling the comments on the chat. With regard to the problem of space, the rector Porro assures: “As regards the changing rooms, we will take care to check the situation as soon as possible, in agreement with the management of the university hospital”.
