The school year began with scandals: children are wrapped in tape

Every holiday on September 1, there is hope that participants in the “educational process” will stop stepping on the same rake and will live peacefully. But, alas, in just a week since the beginning of the school year, several high-profile cases of aggression towards students by teaching staff have occurred. The scheme is still the same – the episode becomes famous after it is filmed on a phone and posted on a social network.

The wildest incident occurred in Ufa. There is a second year student there (age 16-17 years old. – Auth.) At the Ufa Motor Transport College, the teacher wrapped red sticky tape around her neck and chin. It is known that Raisa S. (name changed), who did this, teaches history and labor protection at a college; she graduated from the Bashkir State University in 1990. The woman is the silver medalist of the III regional championship of the Republic of Bashkortostan “Skills of the Wise” (in occupational safety), participant in the regional competition “Best Teacher of the Year 2019”.

The video, filmed from somewhere in the back rows of the classroom, shows a teacher roughly wrapping adhesive tape around a student’s neck, saying: “What was unclear about the word ‘do not interfere with anyone’s work’? The guy tries to move the “bandage”, then the teacher grabs him by the scruff of the neck and pulls the tape higher, and then bites the tape with his teeth. At this point the recording ends.

The incident became known, as usual, from social networks. After a public scandal, UATC reported that teacher S. had been suspended from work and an investigation had been launched at the college.

The profile that Raisa S. still has on the website of the Ministry of Education of Bashkortostan says that she is a “valuable personnel.” In addition to the local university, the woman graduated from the Civil Service Academy in 1995 and became a lawyer. Moreover, S. is a representative of a pedagogical dynasty, her grandfather was a school director, her mother a teacher and head teacher. “To be a good teacher, you need to love what you teach and love those to whom you teach,” she quotes Klyuchevsky’s words in her self-presentation.

But in Kuban, in the village of Starokorsunskaya (a suburb of Krasnodar), a teacher at school No. 85 threw students’ briefcases into the corridor. And this was also filmed: 3 or 4 school backpacks were lying in the corridor, another one was flying out of the classroom, books were scattered on the floor. “You have no right to enter the office without permission!” – the teacher shouts from the depths of the classroom. She is also glimpsed at the classroom door. “Now yours is arriving,” “What if there’s a phone there?” the students comment on the teacher’s actions.

The conflict, according to the students, broke out because the teacher did not want the children to be in the classroom during recess. The administration said that the school had already conducted a “pedagogical investigation” and conversations with the teacher and children (they appeared to be fifth-graders). The Department of Education of Krasnodar, through the MCU, reported that the teacher’s behavior “was incorrect,” but now “the conflict between the teacher and the children has been resolved.”

In Sevastopol, during the first week of school, the director of school No. 57, Galina Guzanova, did not approve of the bright hair color of 15-year-old Nastya, who dyed her hair with henna. Further, the “testimonies of the parties” differ: the parents of the teenage girl claim that on Monday Nastya was not allowed into class and was allowed to enter only after the girl’s father threatened to call the police. The version of the school and the local educational department refutes this.

“The director claims that the child was allowed to attend classes after the second lesson and still attends school with a recommendation to bring himself into proper shape,” reports the press service of the Department of Education and Science of Sevastopol. And he cites screenshots from the internal rules of the school, where in section 3, sub-clauses 3.8 it is approved: extravagant haircuts and hairstyles are prohibited, hair coloring is prohibited. Nastya’s family was given a week to correct the hair situation.

“The section “Organizational and Legal Documents” on the official website of Secondary School No. 57 (with the implementation of additional programs in the field of art) of the city of Sevastopol contains “Internal Rules for Students” – there are no such points and subpoints there,” says lawyer Stanislav Popov. – There, in paragraph 4, it is stated that wearing a school uniform is mandatory. These points contain a certain Regulation (in the “Other Documents” section on the school website) on the requirement for a uniform school uniform and student’s appearance for 2019, signed by the school director. In short, it is illegal.

We have the Federal Law “On Education”, which says that it is up to schools to decide whether to introduce uniforms for students or not. I emphasize that we are talking about clothing: style, color, cut, insignia – logo, tie, scarf, etc. You can introduce this in yourself and require it from students. Yes, schools have the right to issue internal regulatory documents, such as Charter, Internal Regulations, etc. The regulations are about something else altogether; there are examples of regulations for schools and they are not about hairstyles at all. But, in any case, no local documents should contradict the main current law “On Education” and the adopted by-laws. In this case, the Regulations are the initiative of the director, their demands are illegitimate. If I were the department, I would not point to the “Regulations”, but arrange a legal audit for the school.

“I don’t want to talk once again about how teachers burn out, that the requirements for workers in the education system have changed a lot, but the workers themselves have not,” says family psychologist Maryana Razumovskaya. – And I would like to focus on those who “come to understand” the actions of teachers who wrap tape around children or throw briefcases. Look at how much of this is discussed in the discussion of incidents: the children “brought about it,” “provoked,” “it was their own fault.” As in other similar cases, 30-40% of comments are like this.

I wanted to appeal to these people – so that they would understand for themselves why and why they support evil and injustice. Many children in previous generations in our country grew up in an environment of authoritarian upbringing at school and at home. There was a high background level of different types of violence: emotional denial, passive and active aggression, parental devaluation and alienation. Even where the family was complete and not particularly toxic, as they say now, children could not be praised, “otherwise they would become arrogant.” Today, not by condemning, but by “understanding” such teachers, commentators are protecting their inner child. Unloved, underappreciated, emotionally broken. This is a projection of a child’s perception, self-justification of such behavior on the part of a significant adult – a teacher, a parent. And the “learned gloating” superimposed on this is a mechanism of competition between the weak and the weak. In general, justifying teachers who are aggressors towards children as the first reaction to such a story is an alarming call about the dehumanization of the entire value system. And something urgently needs to be changed.