Occupations of Schools

So, everything has been crazy for the past couple of weeks. I haven't posted about this before because I didn't know exactly how or when, but after what happened today I had to create a post. Palermo has many schools, and mine just so happens to be a very important one. Every year in Palermo the students take over the schools and call them "Occupations". It surprisingly is legal, but can easily be made illegal, it is a very hard thing for outsiders, like myself, to understand. My school, Liceo Scientifico Statale "Stanislao Cannizzaro", is always the first school to have an occupation and really motivates the other schools to do the same. The occupations usually occur in late October early November. Me and my classmates thought the occupations would not happen due to how late in the year is is. We were gladly surprised when last Thursday a group of students in fact occupied the school. I was very excited, these occupations supposedly last for weeks, no school. This occupation lasted for three days, until the last night all of the kids left the school and forgot to lock it back up.  This of course was a big mistake because the next morning the teachers were back inside and teaching once again.  The students were enraged.  Three days isn't enough. They wanted more and had many meetings this week about when and how we would occupy once more. In the beginning of this week other schools started occupying, leaving Cannizzaro in the dust. Yesterday the occupation was on, students were blocking all entrances and stopping teachers and other students from entering. But the problem was the doors were locked, the kids blocking the gates couldn't get in to occupy either. Eventually half an hour into the madness the doors opened and kids started flooding in screaming that the school had been occupied and how happy they were. Little did they know the principal was unlocking all the doors and letting the teachers back into the school. The occupation had failed and students were furious. They had an illegal meeting after lunch debating when and how again, but this time there was a problem. No one wanted to be the face of the occupation, and for it to be legal and correct there needs to be a student, over the age of 18, willing to take the responsibility for the occupation. No one stepped up, so we all headed home very disappointed. That night one of the other schools was dis-occupied, police came in and knocked the gates and doors down, kicking all of the students out. The next morning once again we were occupying. But the same thing happened as before, the principal snuck in and started opening everything, even tore down an occupation banner. But the students were not having it, they refused to enter the school. There was a mass of kids occupying the street. They were shouting and screaming chants for occupation, praying somehow it would work. This of course did not work and some kids eventually gave into the rules and went inside, but not all.   Most students stayed outside and waited for the lunch break to strike again. During the lunch there was of course another strike, this time bigger and better. Me and Franco found ourselves on the inside of the gate. The gates were locked with chains and the teachers were trying to break them. They brought out some bolt cutters and went to town on the chains, this was not enough. The kids were overjoyed when it did not work, then they came out with an electric saw, the  students and I were very sad. The electric saw was enough to cut the chains, the school was once again open. This occupation however was supposedly illegal and a police officer was going around video taping the faces of kids inside (good thing I was there huh?). The last door was guarded by kids wearing  hoods and covering their faces so the camera could not identify them. One of my friends was among the kids and was in the very front row. I do not know how but the last door opened, this caused a frenzy. The students were running due to the fear of the police catching them. The police indeed wanted to catch them and tackled some of the kids, others were grabbed strongly by their arms and legs. This started a riot. Kids everywhere screaming at police and backing them into a convenient store across the street. Civilian justice at its finest. The group was shouting and screaming at the police officers for about fifteen minutes until other higher up officer came to see what happened. The students yelled what happened and luckily the kids were released from the convenient store. You may be asking what happened to my friend in the front row, well its hilarious. All of the kids started running once the door opened, except for him, he slowly walked away. Still covering his head he  walked right by me with a smile on his face. One of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. After all this chaos of legal and illegal occupations, I am glad to say the school is occupied. I hope it is legal, but if not, eh, I'm not inside. It means no school and days to relax. The police who were video taped should be dealt with but I do not know the laws for that stuff here. Anyway occupations are ridiculous, but it is very fun. Also I met a lot of new people today while waiting outside. All in all pretty fun.