(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 7 - Writer and teacher Christian Raimo has been suspended from the Rome high school he works at for three month on half pay after criticising and insulting Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara during a recent public debate.
    During the debate at the national festival of the Green-Left Alliance (AVS), Raimo described Valditara as a "sleazy, repressive, dangerous buffoon" and said he was a "target to hit like the Death Star in Star Wars".
    The comments led the Lazio regional education authority to open disciplinary proceedings against Raimo, who was a candidate for the AVS in June's European elections but was not voted in.
    The suspension led to protests by students at Rome's Archimede high school, where Raimo teaches, with a banner at the entrance reading "three-month suspension for an opinion". (ANSA).