A short sentence, when it comes from a child, can weigh more than all the explanations from adults. “I’m tired of school”, according to what was reported in the news, appeared in the note left by Mattia, thirteen years old, a young competitor from the Parioli Tennis Club who died in Rome in recent days. FITP Lazio expressed its condolences for the boy, rallying close to the family of the young Roman athlete; the investigations remain the necessary step to accurately reconstruct the story and to avoid emotional shortcuts disguised as the truth.
That sentence remains there, small and enormous. It seems like one of the many things a teenager can say in the morning, in front of his backpack, a test, an electronic register that now enters the house even before breakfast. Sometimes it just means tiredness. Other times it becomes the poorest, driest, most terrible way of saying that something is giving way. Adolescent discomfort often speaks like this: without order, without diagnosis, without complete sentences. For this reason it must be treated with caution. A single sentence explains little, but it can be enough to stop.
Psychology asks you to look at the entire network before judging
The quickest temptation, when faced with stories like this, is to look for a single culprit. School, family, classmates, cell phone, grades, performance anxiety, personal fragility: pain always seeks a target to set. Psychology, however, tells something more uncomfortable and much less televised. Adolescent malaise almost always arises within a network of factors. Family environment, relationships with peers, quality of school life, sleep, changing body, expectations, possible bullying episodes, access to help, personal characteristics. Everything is touched. Everything can weigh.
The World Health Organization estimates that one in seven adolescents aged 10 to 19 worldwide experience a mental health condition; anxiety, depression and behavioral disorders are among the main causes of illness and disability in this age group. The same sheet reminds us that family, school and community can become protective environments when they work, while the accumulation of risk factors increases vulnerability.
In Italy, school weighs in a very concrete way. The HBSC surveillance coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità shows that already at the age of 11 about half of the boys and girls feel the pressure of school work as an important source of stress. The share increases with age and among girls it exceeds 80% in the 15 and 17 year age groups; in 2022 the highest percentages in the historical series were recorded, especially among girls aged 13 and 15.
These numbers tell us something useful: school can become one of the places where fatigue takes shape, especially when performance remains the only language available. The vote stops being information and starts to seem like a measure of the person. Verification becomes a process. The class chat continues after the bell. The group decides who exists and who remains on the margins. At thirteen, even a laugh can last for days, even a phrase said in the corridor can remain stuck to the skin.
“Tired of school” can mean many things. Too many tasks. Little sleep. A bad week. A teacher experienced as threatening. A classy group that weighs. A family that waits for results without realizing the emotional cost. An internal fear of failure, even when no one is asking for perfection. Sometimes the pressure comes from outside. Sometimes it is born inside, nourished by comparisons, expectations, shame, the need to measure up.
A longitudinal study led by UCL and published in 2026 on The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health adds an important piece. Following 4,714 adolescents from the UK ALSPAC cohort, researchers observed that greater perceived academic pressure at age 15 was associated with more depressive symptoms in later years and an increased risk of self-harm into early adulthood. The authors point out that the study is observational and therefore, on its own, does not demonstrate a direct cause-effect relationship. When school is experienced as overwhelming, however, the body and head can bear the brunt of it for a long time.
School discomfort accumulates on normal days
Teens often speak in fragments. They leave a sentence on the table and observe the reaction and, if they receive a lecture, they shut down. If they get anxiety, they feel like a problem. If they are rushed, they learn that certain things are better to keep on them. We need less performative listening, less anxious to immediately fix everything. A child in difficulty may say “I hate school” and mean “I feel incapable”. He may say “I don’t want to go there” and mean “I feel alone in there”. He may say “I’m tired” and mean “I don’t know how to hold on anymore”.
Here adult responsibility exists, but it must be understood as a shared presence, without a permanent process. A parent can love a child very much and miss a sign. A teacher can be attentive and only see a piece of the scene. A coach can sense something before the family. A partner may notice a strange phrase in chat. We need a net thick enough to make those who are failing fall less far.
On paper it seems simple, because this discomfort often resembles something that we adults think we already know. We too have gone through homework, professors, teasing, bad grades, bad afternoons. It is almost natural to think: “it will pass, as it passed for me”. Sometimes it really goes away. Other times it stays on and grows silently. Telling a teenager “I’ve been there too” can help when it becomes an outstretched hand, an ear ready to listen, a way of telling him: “I believe you, you’re not strange, let’s stay here for a moment”. If, however, it only serves to close the discussion, it weighs like another closed door.
A useful word in studies is “connection”. The US CDC defines school connectedness as the feeling that adults and peers within the school care about the student as a person and about his or her learning. When children feel connected to school, they are less exposed to mental health problems and more engaged in positive behavior, attendance and performance.
Cobolli with the M on his arm, Pintus moved on stage
Mattia’s death also affected Italian tennis. Flavio Cobolli, who grew up in the Parioli environment and was close to the boy, learned of the tragedy after the victory in the quarterfinals in Monaco. The next day he entered the court against Alexander Zverev with an M written on his arm. After the success, a hand towards the sky, then tears on the bench. A scene of those that sport occasionally delivers without really managing to contain them.
Cobolli also remembered Mattia on social media, talking about his smile, his desire to learn and a tennis school that, without him, would have changed its face. In his message there was also a thought for Paolo, Mattia’s father, who the tennis player knew well. In that passage, mourning stops being sports news and goes back to being something much simpler and much harder: a boy from the club, a father, a field, people who really knew each other.
Then the pain took a concrete form. On the occasion of the final farewell to Mattia, a fundraiser for 118 was relaunched, with the aim of contributing to the purchase of an ambulance in his memory. The appeal also arrived on Angelo Pintus’ stage: during Nabanathe collection for “Mattia’s ambulance” appeared on a screen, made out to Attivi Benevole Parioli ETS, with reason for payment “Contribution for Mattia” and IBAN IT85W0200805199000103697406.
Those who were in the room spoke of a very emotional Pintus. This also happens in shows. The comedian stops, the room changes temperature, a name remains on the screen:
We are at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome: there will be around six thousand people this evening alone, 24 April. Another six thousand people will arrive tomorrow. If only each of us donated even just 2 euros, a significant amount could be reached.
The IBAN shown during the show coincides with the one indicated by the Parioli Tennis Club for free donations in favor of Parioli ETS Charitable Activities. On the same page we read that the association has been operating since 2007 with the aim of social solidarity, especially in the healthcare and children’s sectors.
Here memory changes matter. It comes out of sentences, posts, awkward hugs. Become a rescue vehicle. A stretcher. A mermaid. A crew. A call taken in time. It seems unpoetic, and perhaps that’s why it makes sense. Faced with a loss like this, words seem almost useless. An ambulance, however, is needed.
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