Parents of children at a Milan
nursery school that is at the centre of a storm for stopping
children making father's day gifts have said that the furore is
groundless.
The move sparked protests after being linked to the desire
not to upset children with gay or lesbian parents.
In a letter published in Wednesday's edition of Corriere
della Sera, parents of the Via Toce school said the decision was
taken last year not to prepare gifts for mother's day or
father's day in respect to families in which a parent had died
or was absent for another reason.
It said the children had been given the freedom to choose
whether to do a drawing for their mother or their father.
"A groundless media storm has taken life of a purely
political nature and it is being exploited and the victims are
the school itself and the children who attend it," the letter
read.
"It is unacceptable that a political battle is being
carried out on the backs of children aged three, four and five,"
it added, calling for the "media bubble to be burst" with press
silence.
On Wednesday a group of militants belonging to the
right-wing Lealtà e Azione group staged a protest outside the
school with a banner reading "Bring Back Fathers' Day".
The parents' letter did not stop former transport minister
Maurizio Lupi, an MP for the centrist AP group, saying the case
was "absurd".
"There are children who unfortunately no longer have two
parents, so we abolish father's day and soon, therefore, we'll
also ban mother's day so as not to hurt their sensibilities," he
said.
"There are children of other religious faiths, so we
change the menus of the school canteens and abolish Christmas
shows to respect diversity.
"There are Muslim workers, so we have to allow them to
pray during office time to enable them to integrate better.
"At this point I wonder whether families with two mothers
or two fathers will be given a double holiday while other
children won't be able to celebrate an event that has always
been part of our culture".
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