Public law: why a schoolgirl publicly accused the principal of bullying
The Ministry of Education and the prosecutor's office of Chuvashia are conducting an inspection at a school in the Yantikovsky district, after a schoolgirl publicly accused the principal of humiliation in a speech on the last call. The audience applauded the girl, but the director claims that the schoolgirl was used by adults to solve their problems, and categorically denies the accusations. Meanwhile, this tenth—grader is not the first one who decided to publicly declare problems in her educational institution. Izvestia investigated why students are increasingly trying to talk about difficulties in this way and what became the reason for the performance of the Chuvash schoolgirl.
What did the student accuse the principal of?
The last call at the small Yan-Norvash secondary school in Chuvashia turned into a scandal: a tenth-grader on the line took the microphone and made a speech in which she accused the principal of the school, Raisa Illarionova, of humiliation.
"It is a pity that the headmaster of our school does not know how to respond with kindness. She wants to embarrass me, she wants to embarrass my parents," Maria P. began her speech. The microphone was turned off for a short time, but after the outrage of the audience, it was immediately turned back on.
"She calls me rude, she calls me mentally retarded. I'm doing everything to make our school a better place. But from the principal of our school and some teachers, I see only a bad attitude towards me," the girl said.
She claims that children are allegedly being "set up against her" and they want to "register her with the juvenile affairs department." Maria P. stated that children at school were being shouted at and were being aggressive towards them.
She made the statement on her own behalf, as well as on behalf of two other children, including on behalf of eighth-grader Victoria, who, as it later became known, was brought up with her in the same family.
At the end of her speech, Maria asked everyone who agreed with her in assessing the director's performance to support her, and there was applause in response.
The statement of the schoolgirl was distributed on social networks and mass media. Among other things, an anonymous testimony appeared from a former student of the school, whom Larisa Illarionova had previously led: allegedly, she "humiliated and insulted children there for no reason."
The Ministry of Education of Chuvashia and the Prosecutor's office of the republic organized an inspection at the school. Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, instructed to submit a report on information about possible illegal actions of the school principal.
The Ministry of Education of Chuvashia had not responded to Izvestia's request at the time of publication.
How does the director explain what happened
The school's principal, Raisa Illarionova, denied the accusations against her. She told Izvestia that Maria P. was allegedly broadcasting the position of adults, not her own. According to Raisa Illarionova, she had always had a good relationship with this tenth-grader. The problems appeared after interference in the affairs of a large family in which Maria is raised (she has foster parents).
Raisa Illarionova claims that Victoria, mentioned in Maria's statement, began going to school without glasses at the end of last year. When the director began to find out what the reason was, it turned out that the "girl was being punished" for losing them. Then Raisa Illarionova applied to the guardianship and guardianship authorities. Glasses were bought for the girl after that, but all family members, according to the director, began to treat her "very aggressively": both mother and children.
Raisa Illarionova calls the Russian language teacher another person who sets Maria P. against her. In the spring, there was a conflict over a Russian language contest, which involved both Maria and the director. But the relationship with this teacher deteriorated even earlier — after the 11th grade allegedly rejected this teacher last school year, and the principal accepted their demand to replace the teacher.
On the day of the last call, Maria was awarded with diplomas from the administration of the Yantikovsky municipal district, but the girl picked up the microphone and made a statement, which was distributed throughout the media. Raisa Illarionova is sure that his text was written by a Russian language teacher.
"I immediately decided not to ban the girl's performance, I listened calmly to the end, because I know I'm right — I'm always pure and good—natured, I have no aggression against girls or teachers," she told Izvestia, stressing that she had never allowed herself to insult children. And even more so, she did not call the girl mentally retarded — Maria is an excellent student, represents the school at the Olympics, emphasizes Raisa Illarionova.
She has been working in the field of education for a long time, although she joined this school only in 2023: she has 38 years of teaching experience, 22 years as head of educational organizations.
And one of the former pupils of the school told Izvestia that the school had serious problems with the attitude towards students even before Raisa Illarionova became the principal.
Why does management have conflicts with students?
Boris Ilyukhin, a senior researcher at the Center for Economics of Continuing Education at the IPEI Presidential Academy, emphasizes that so far there are "too many unknowns" in this story to evaluate it. He notes that he did not see an attempt to hide what was happening, admits that the statement is a "broadcast of a conflict between parents and teachers," since that is "where the child starts."
— Cases of targeted harassment at school by the administration are just nonsense in my understanding. I'm not ready to believe it," he told Izvestia. — I have no doubt that the girl is sincere. But whether this is bullying or the reasons are different is a matter that experts should understand. And, in my opinion, not prosecutors, but psychologists.
Dmitry Kazakov, chairman of the Teacher trade union, notes that school administrators usually have little contact with students: more often than not, conflicts occur with teachers or between students.
"But I've seen situations where the school administration behaved inappropriately and the relationship with the children was very difficult," he told Izvestia. — Children can also be involved in conflicts with the administration by their parents. The main thing is to understand the reason why the school environment itself turned out to be so unhealthy.
Dmitry Deulin, Dean of the Faculty of Extreme Psychology at MGPPU, emphasizes that in this situation "it is important to protect the truth."
"Commissions should be set up on each such issue and it should be carefully examined which signals preceded these circumstances and why no one paid attention to them," he told Izvestia.
Irina Abankina, a professor at the Higher School of Economics Institute of Education, emphasizes that school management is currently under very serious pressure from education authorities.
"They must show very high results, otherwise measures may be applied to managers, including financial ones — reduction of incentive payments, reduction in status, difficulties in passing certification, etc.," she told Izvestia. — As a result, the nature of school management is not just administrative, but authoritarian. And the accumulated burnout leads to behavior that does not correspond to the status of a leader. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.
Irina Abankina notes that school leaders try to hold on "by all means" and often the only way for them to interact with students and teachers is "pressure and pressure."
Tatiana Blinova, a leading researcher at the Central Research Institute of the IPEI Presidential Academy, points out that, on average, the leadership of schools is updated by almost 10% per year, but the number of retired employees exceeds the number of arrivals. The national average for managers in general education is 2.5%. The largest vacancy rate in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is 11.3%, while in Chuvashia this figure is 4.2%. This leads to the fact that principals who have already faced burnout are appointed to similar positions in other schools, experts say.
Dmitry Kazakov also points out that the school is currently in a "very tense situation" — he attributes this to the difficult working conditions of teachers, which leads to conflicts between teachers, administration, students and parents. In an environment where the director can be fired for any reason without explanation, he begins to put pressure on the teams and on the students, which creates conflicts.
Mikhail Avdeenko, deputy chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, adds that every school should adopt regulations on the standards of professional ethics of teaching staff, which should prescribe the duty of teachers to respect the honor and dignity of students and other participants in educational relations. And the school principal should be an example in this regard, he emphasizes. The expert notes that if there really was such an attitude towards children on the part of the head of the school, this also explains the story going public: who else should students turn to at school if the headmaster himself encourages "bullying"?
Why did the problem become public?
Note that this is not the first time that students have publicly stated a problem at graduation ceremonies. Last year, first a graduate of the laboratory diagnostics department of a medical college in Tambov, and then a student from Novokuznetsk, reported "unprofessionalism and neglect on the part of teachers" in their educational institutions.
— This is certainly a bad way, but it means that the students simply could not find other ways to solve the problem, — Mikhail Avdeenko believes. — They could be intimidated if the director himself encouraged such actions. The publicity of the problem does not color either the education system or the educational organization itself at all.
Irina Abankina emphasizes that the fact that this case is not an isolated one indicates the need for systemic solutions. This indicates that other ways of solving problems turn out to be ineffective: sometimes contacting the prosecutor's office or educational authorities only "worsens the situation", since the problematic situation is only "varnished", but persists.
— I think that we need public monitoring bodies that could work quite sensitively in schools, — she said. — And the pressure on schools should be reduced. The publicity of the problems only indicates that the system does not have the resources inside to relieve this tension.
Boris Ilyukhin calls the main problem the separation of parents of students and schools, when "everyone loves children, but they cannot agree among themselves." Boris Ilyukhin sees the decision "exclusively in the public and state plane": a person working at a school "should be legally protected no less than a child who studies at this school."
Dmitry Deulin emphasizes that analyzing typical situations will help to more objectively understand the mechanisms of the formation of "toxic problems."
— We live in a difficult time, an era of change. For many people, this becomes an unbearable burden, and psychological and pedagogical efforts are important here in order to help adequately respond to new challenges," the source told Izvestia.
He emphasizes that psychologists and educators should monitor any student's problems, but there is a problem with the high workload of these workers and a high index of potential threats.
— The school becomes a theater of hostility between its various subjects of the educational environment. Perhaps there is already talk about introducing a fundamentally new position in schools — a "psychological marshal", who would have much more freedom and additional special competencies," said Dmitry Deulin.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
