In an inclusive kindergarten in Makhachkala, children are systematically beaten

In the video, released by the boy’s mother, Diana Murklinskaya, the teacher Louise conducts a real showdown on concepts with a frightened baby. Looming over the child, he pushes something into him, then roughly grabs his hand when he tries to leave. Already running away, gives a cuff. Nearby, a nanny in a Muslim dress and hijab is impassively vacuuming the floors…

– On the face of the son there were red marks, stripes, and he peed out of fear, – says mother Diana. – I was in such a turmoil that I just grabbed it and just flew out of there. It was a shock situation, I was able to return for explanations only the next day.

Versions of the garden – the child hit “on the swing”. Then the mother was told that the child “did not obey and was scolded.” When the Murklinskys demanded to see the surveillance camera footage, a scandal erupted, part of which was also caught on video. It was not possible to write down a lot, because the teacher threw a tantrum. “Louisa was lying at our feet, begging us not to go to the police, grabbing our hands, trying to take away the phone from my mother and me …” recalls Murklinskaya.

The garden has its own truth. The manager believes that in general “there was nothing to raise a panic about.” Like, after the incident with the boy, the offending teacher was fired. “But it seemed to them that this was not enough, and they began such a process,” says the head of the garden. Like, nothing “criminal” happened, and the boy’s relatives want to “draw attention to themselves.”

– Autism is characterized by an increased reaction of the child to tactile and other types of sensory influences, says speech pathologist Irina Trubinina. – Often, auditory sensory is enhanced by a multiple, compared to an ordinary person. And in patients with ASD, there is a stuck effect, when the same movement, experience, especially traumatic ones, is repeated and fixed like a trigger. Rudeness, which is generally inapplicable to children, is destructive in this case.

This private kindergarten for children with developmental disabilities is not cheap, 25 thousand per month, and Montessori classes, a defectologist, and so on are paid separately. Each group has 10-15 children. At the same time, my mother claims that the educators there have only the usual pedagogical education. The same defectologists and other specialists necessary for special children appear only at paid additional classes. The nannies are mostly senior ped students.

The decision of the Murklinskys to immediately file a complaint with the police turned out to be correct also because the case of cruelty to children in the “special” kindergarten was not the only one. In the summer, with bruises and abrasions, the parents took a 6-year-old girl from there with ZPRR (delayed psycho-speech development). But they couldn’t prove anything.

– On July 27 in the morning I brought my daughter to the kindergarten, – says Madina Makhmudova. – At 12, her husband went after her and saw that her daughter’s nose was red and all swollen. I arrived, began to change the child’s clothes, and her hand was all mutilated. Bruises, bruises, scratches. As if our girl was beaten by some monsters!

Madina began to write to the teacher, the nanny – no one knew anything. Then the mother demanded from the administration a video recording of three hours of the child’s stay in the garden. They sent some piece, not informative. And the explanation that the hand was injured, probably on the balusters of the stairs. “Yes, I myself will walk between these balusters, it’s wide there,” Madina comments.

In the morning both parents went to the garden. “The video is faulty, something was cut off there,” the administration told them. As a result, when Madina managed to get the disc with the recording, the necessary pieces were erased from there. The parents took the conclusion of the forensic medical examination: beatings with a blunt object, abrasions, scratches, bruises.

– Our child is developmentally delayed, she can’t even tell anything! – the woman is indignant. – Since then, she has become completely frightened, she is very afraid of people. Even when I go to hug her, she covers her head with her hands. The psychologist says that we now have a long rehabilitation ahead of us.

Having learned about a new case of cruelty to special children in the garden, the woman herself sought out the victims. Mothers Madina and Diana teamed up and managed to publicize the video with the beating of the boy. There was no official apology from the garden.

“I was only told later that the teacher that my daughter had was fired,” says Madina. “Looks like being rude to kids.” I myself work in a children’s rehabilitation center for special children. Also autistic, cerebral palsy, ZPRR and so on. And when nannies, educators find an excuse for themselves by the fact that these children are very difficult, so they break loose – these are excuses, lies, not true! If you have a heart and work experience, you will never commit such an offense.

“Five years ago, I opened the first inclusive kindergarten in Makhachkala,” Fatimat Magomedova, co-founder of the kindergarten, told MK. – Over the years, we have had various events, the specifics of working with special children is still not easy. I myself am a specialist in working with special children with 10 years of experience. I admit, I approached the matter not as a businessman, but as a teacher, probably. So I made mistakes. Some people have no excuse, as in this situation with Louise the caregiver. This happened in our third branch, each branch has its own manager. And my main miscalculation, it turns out, is the lack of control over the branches of the garden, behind the staff. I am very sorry that I was not there when this happened to the boy. Because I would have fallen to my knees with Louise. There is no excuse. But there is a desire to say “I’m sorry” to my mother, there is a desire to somehow compensate the family. To help invest in the child on all fronts in order to bring him to school together.

– Why do mothers then say that you did not apologize?

– When the story happened with the boy, I was not in the country. When I arrived, I immediately tried to contact my mother through friends, but I didn’t have time, because this video had already appeared in the morning. And most of all, I was killed by what Louise did. She was in very good hands with us.

– Do your educators have specialized education to work with special children?

– Pedagogical is at all. But I always look at how a person treats children and how they accept him. This is more important than the crusts of a speech therapist or psychologist for me. The children received Louise very well, they trusted her. Even all 12 mothers in the group could not believe it, they themselves went to the investigator. But video is video.

– And in the case of a girl with mental retardation, what happened there?

– I can not tell you. The administrator of the second branch watched the video from the cameras and said that there was nothing of the kind there. The girl’s parents came 3 days later, when the records were updated, we did not erase anything. The girl was taken by her father in the afternoon, and they began to call and find out in the evening, at half past seven. So that…

– But the nanny was fired after that incident?

Yes, they fired. She was a student at the Pedagogical Institute, studying to be an elementary school teacher. After the incident with the girl, we began to carefully watch all the cameras and found her rudeness towards children. There, in this branch, it was the first request for a review of cameras at all. And it was also hard to believe, because the worker made a completely different impression.

– In public, they demand to close the garden …

– It’s being checked. But I can say that while our garden is needed by mothers and special children, we do not close. A big thank you to all the parents who brought their children to us today. I myself am very committed to the idea of ​​socialization and rehabilitation of special children, we participate in international programs, conduct seminars, certify employees. I regret that this happened in my garden and I am ready for any cooperation with my parents.