A college in the town of Avezzano, L'Instituto Technico Industriale, has decided to take preventive measures and ban certain types of footwear to reduce injury count in times of seismic activities. School authorities do not seem to want to leave too much to chance especially with far too many earthquakes taking place in south Abruzzo.
As part of this regulation, students may no longer wear shoes that have heels taller than four centimetres. Platform shoes and even flip-flops have also been declared unsafe and disallowed among students and staff within school premises.
Majority of the student body and staff members disagree with the decision and think the measure unjustified.
"They should think about more serious issues," one student declares. "Like how to heat the school properly."
L'Instituto Technico Industriale head, Anna Amanzi, defends the new school policy, "The directive is not the fruit of some overly puritanical imagination, but comes down to the need to educate students about safety, especially in an area of high seismic activity."
A few similar regulations have sought to install clothing-appropriateness measures, including ones on mini skirts and low-rise jeans. This is the first time, however, that these measures directly targeted public safety.
While the decision by L'Instituto Technico Industriale may seem bizarre and limiting to some, the threat that earthquakes pose is very real.
In 2015 alone, the region experienced a series of ground shaking. Fortunately, no death has been reported from these incidents. However, in 2009 the death toll reached 286 in the city following several earthquakes. The damages were so significant that to date a number of buildings are still going through repair and reconstruction. In
Perhaps one of the most devastating experiences in this town was a deadly earthquake in 1950 which measured 6.9 in the Richter Scale and took the lives of over 30,000 people.
