For the fifth consecutive year, the 'Rummo' Scientific High School in Benevento opened its doors to the State Police, hosting an immersive day designed to close the distance between young people and the institutions responsible for public order. The event, known as A Scuola di polizia - Education for Legality and Familiarization with the Police, drew students from the third, fourth, and fifth years of the school and offered something rarely available in standard curricula: direct, hands-on contact with the operational realities of law enforcement. In a period when trust in public institutions often erodes precisely during adolescence, initiatives of this kind carry real civic weight.
A Curriculum the Classroom Rarely Provides
The day's programme moved well beyond the ceremonial. Students rotated through workshops, seminars, and practical demonstrations led by officers drawn from several distinct branches of the State Police - each bringing the specific knowledge and tools of their unit. The Chief of Police of Benevento, Giovanni Leuci, opened proceedings with institutional remarks, stressing the educational value of the collaboration and its role in reinforcing the relationship between law enforcement and the school community. School principal Annamaria Morante, described as a longstanding advocate of legality and civic education within the institute, was equally present throughout the day.
The sessions addressed themes that map directly onto the daily risks facing adolescents: drug use, road safety, and the social norms that underpin responsible civic life. These are not abstract topics for students in their mid-to-late teens. Presenting them through the perspective of the officers who deal with their consequences - rather than through a textbook - shifts the register from instruction to experience.
Digital Dangers and the Postal Police's Timely Warning
Among the day's most discussed segments was the contribution of the Postal Police, the Italian law enforcement unit specialising in cybercrime and digital offences. Officers walked students through the specific dangers that accompany unreflective internet use: cyberbullying and its legal consequences, the mechanics of online scams, the risks embedded in careless social media behaviour, and the fundamentals of protecting personal data online.
This section carried particular urgency. Adolescents are statistically among the most active users of social platforms and among the least likely to have received structured guidance on how those platforms can be exploited - both by peers and by bad actors operating at scale. The Postal Police's involvement gave students not just warnings but an explanation of how digital crime is investigated and prosecuted, lending credibility and specificity to guidance that might otherwise feel generic. Understanding that online behaviour leaves traceable evidence, and that institutions exist specifically to pursue digital wrongdoing, is itself a form of civic literacy.
Crime Scenes, Detection Dogs, and the Value of Visible Expertise
Two elements of the day proved especially effective at capturing student attention through direct spectacle grounded in genuine procedure. The State Police's canine unit conducted live demonstrations with dogs trained in the detection of narcotics and explosives - a visceral illustration of how sensory science is applied in investigative fieldwork. The animals' precision, and the discipline evident in their handling, made an impression that no slide presentation could replicate.
Equally striking was the contribution of the Forensic Police, who reconstructed a simulated crime scene within the school itself. Students observed the methods used to document, preserve, and analyse physical evidence - techniques that form the backbone of any criminal investigation. The exercise served a dual purpose: it demystified forensic science, which popular culture tends to distort, and it offered a concrete glimpse into a professional field that requires rigorous training, analytical precision, and legal accountability. For students approaching the threshold of university or vocational choices, this kind of exposure functions as genuine orientation rather than abstract career advice.
Why Repetition Matters: The Fifth Edition of a Living Tradition
The fact that this is the fifth edition of the event is not incidental. A programme that returns annually to the same school builds something cumulative - a relationship between an institution and a community, rather than a one-off gesture. Students who attended in earlier years carry forward a different relationship with the State Police than those who never encountered officers outside a formal or adversarial context. Younger students arrive already familiar with the format and, in some cases, with expectations shaped by older peers who described the experience.
The broader logic here connects to a well-established principle in civic education: familiarity reduces suspicion, and structured dialogue between young people and authority figures tends to produce more engaged, rights-aware citizens. By making legality tangible - not as a set of prohibitions but as a framework that trained professionals uphold daily, at personal risk and with considerable expertise - events like this one do work that formal instruction alone rarely accomplishes. The Rummo High School's commitment to hosting this initiative year after year reflects an understanding that civic education is not a single lesson but a sustained practice.