“Catalyst of fear”: parents were outraged by an advertisement posted at school “in migrant languages”

A storm of indignation and legal discourse was caused by the placement of an advertisement in a Novosibirsk school, duplicated in Tajik and Kyrgyz for non-Russian speaking parents. Some Novosibirsk residents saw this as a violation of the Constitution, others asked “not to inflame.” The mayor’s office did not reveal any violations of the law in the actions of the school administration.

The position of the directorate is, in principle, clear and understandable. Due to the current epidemiological situation, all parents are asked to wear masks.

“Different people study at school. Some of the parents, unfortunately, have a low culture, including in preventing diseases,” explains director Mikhail Paley. Like, they wrote it for migrant parents in their language, so that it would be clear. If children get infected from adults without a mask, is it better? Therefore, “it can be duplicated in all the languages ​​our children speak.” At least in Chinese…

School No. 47 in the Leninsky district of Novosibirsk is, as usual, overcrowded, and there are queues for the locker room. “Multinational,” this is how the mother of a 6th grade student characterizes the MK school. – In our (school) there are 40% migrant children. And in the Kirovsky district there are schools where there are 80% of them. Problems with them? – yes, there are. But in our school, teachers and parents monitor this.”

The school, located on Sibiryakov-Gvardeytsev Square, reflects many of the current problems as if in a mirror. The building is very old and needs renovation. The classes are overcrowded, there are special children and “foreigners”—that’s what teachers call migrant children who don’t speak Russian among themselves. Conflicts sometimes flare up, both interethnic and “ordinary”. But at the same time, there is a strong level of teaching here, there is a theater and a sports club at the school, and there is a summer camp. Problems like everyone else, nothing unusual.

So why did the administration’s rather innocent request to parents not to enter the school unless necessary, and if they did, to wear a mask, which was translated into Kyrgyz and Tajik in Cyrillic, caused such a storm of discussion? First in chats, and then on social networks, not only schools, but also cities, and then countries?..

“A school is not a private shop, but a state institution. And announcements must be only in Russian, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Has the school administration decided to oppose the Constitution?” – with such a statement from the schoolboy’s mother, this whole story began to spin. Also on social networks, the woman wrote about the “majority” of students – non-citizens who do not know Russian, and that this is a “shame.” And they immediately pointed out to her that such posts and some comments under them also violate the law, specifically Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the inadmissibility of inciting ethnic hatred.

However, the proactive parents did not stop there and contacted the local education department. They say that all announcements in public organizations must be posted in the state language, and this is Russian.

The Department of Education of the Novosibirsk City Hall responded in detail. They say that schools “have autonomy under federal law in the educational, scientific, administrative, financial spheres and in resolving local issues.” And children need adaptation and socialization, which include “creating an information environment.”

The mayor’s office even explained why the announcement was “translated” into Tajik and Kyrgyz, and not into other languages. Because, “according to information provided by MBOU Secondary School No. 47, an analysis of the level of Russian language proficiency of migrant families showed that parents of children of migrants from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have great difficulty in mastering the Russian language.”

“It seems to me that people gave such a reaction because of fears and misunderstanding of where problems with the adaptation of migrants in our society will lead,” says social psychologist Valery Raushinsky. – Novosibirsk is one of the largest cities where thousands of migrants come every year. No one is indignant at the illegality of the advertisements – there have long been duplicate inscriptions in Chinese in museums and even monasteries. An announcement in a “foreign” language is simply a catalyst for the irritation and fear that has accumulated in society. And everything that concerns childhood and school is perceived especially sharply by people.