Related to one goal: Why do children die in boarding schools
A court has sentenced three employees of a children's neuropsychiatric boarding school in the Chelyabinsk region to imprisonment in a general regime colony in the case of the death of a 16-year-old teenager: they tied him to a bed because he refused to sleep, and the child died, choking on vomit. Unfortunately, the system of boarding schools in Russia is still far from perfect, and bondage as a way to calm a child is found throughout the country. The reason is always called a shortage of staff, but the problems are much deeper. Why this happens and how to deal with it is in the Izvestia article.
Why did a teenager die at a boarding school?
The court issued a verdict against two nurses and one nurse at the Troitsk Family Education Assistance Center, which is now the name of the boarding school for children near Chelyabinsk. The tragedy occurred back in July 2022: DDI employees tied a 16-year-old teenager to a bed because he did not want to sleep and left him alone. As a result, the boy choked on vomit and died.
The investigation established a connection between the death of the minor and the actions of the institution's employees. They were found guilty under Part 3 of Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Unlawful imprisonment committed by a group of persons by prior agreement") and sentenced to terms from 6 to 6.6 years in a general regime colony.
The deceased teenager is not an orphan — the boy had a family that was forced to place the child in a boarding school after he reached the age of 14: his mental state worsened. But the young man continued to communicate with his loved ones. According to the teenager's mother, he himself said that he was tied to an iron bed, which the pupils among themselves called a stretcher. In the hospital, where the family went two months before the child's death, numerous beatings were allegedly found on his body, and the mother noticed a knocked-out tooth. They explained to her that "the child hits himself when he runs." At the same time, the teenager called out the names of both those employees who treated him well and those who beat him.
After the beatings were discovered, the woman wanted to pick up her son from the boarding school, but could not do so because there was no one from the management. A meeting with the director of the boarding school was supposed to take place on July 11, but on July 7 the child died.
Inna Efimenko has been in charge of this boarding school since 2013. In media comments, she said that physical punishment was not practiced in the institution. At the same time, Efimenko was caught in the Troitsk orphanage not only by the death of this child, but also by a scandal with several episodes of sexual abuse of the institution's pupils. In 2022, a resident of the Chelyabinsk Region, who was not an employee of the DDI, was convicted of crimes that lasted from 2014 to 2017. He received 21 years in prison.
Izvestia sent a request to the government of the Chelyabinsk region about the situation at the boarding school. No response had been received at the time of publication.
Why are children being tied up
Anna Bitova, Chairman of the Board of the Special Childhood Center for Therapeutic Pedagogy, told Izvestia that bondage is used everywhere in children's institutions.
— After we discovered a very widespread practice of fixation of pupils in one children's institution, we asked our volunteer network in several regions to come to boarding schools at an untimely time and honestly say after that whether children are being tied up there or not. It turned out that they fix it everywhere — there were no institutions where it would not be applied," she pointed out.
At the same time, there are not only physical forms of fixation, but also medical ones, which is even worse, the editorial interlocutor added.
Another thing is that this does not always happen with malicious intent. Unfortunately, staff often see this as the only way to cope with their students, given the large staff shortage. For example, when asked to explain why this is being done, one of the boarding schools said that one nurse stays at night, she has 40 or 50 children under her care. One of them wanted to go to the bathroom, and she took him away, but she was afraid he would fall because he couldn't walk well. And she tied me to the toilet. I left for a while, checked on the others, and came back after a while.
"I hope he wasn't there long." But it turns out that the nurse wanted to do well. And it's unclear how to evaluate her actions, because there was no choice: you can't leave him alone in the toilet, or leave 40 other children unattended," said Anna Bitova.
She stressed that the legal fixation of a person is possible only in a psychiatric hospital, but not in a boarding school, which is a social institution.
In this sense, the law is unambiguous, confirms Maria Ostrovskaya, president of the Perspektivy charity organization. She compares the reasoning that tying up is acceptable in conditions of staff shortage with the absurd idea that it is impossible to rob, but in conditions of lack of money it is possible. In fact, most of the cases of people being fixed in boarding schools are that the staff, even if overloaded, organizes the convenience of their work based on the fact that the person adapts to the system, and not the other way around.
At the same time, Anna Bitova clarifies, there is a discussion about introducing into legislation the possibility of restricting freedom in social institutions for security purposes, especially since there are similar practices in the West.
"Nevertheless, we believe that it is necessary, first of all, to fight to increase the number of nursing staff in institutions, especially where there are risks of behavioral disorders," the expert emphasizes.
Maria Ostrovskaya is convinced that it is important to establish a system for checking the work of these institutions. Currently, an independent assessment of the conditions for the provision of social services is being carried out, but there is still no universal assessment of the quality of services and people's lives. To do this, you need to talk to the recipients of these services, but in reality, the checks are a simple detour with the examination of documents and a very formal questionnaire.
— When we went to these institutions, we talked for a long time with the residents and they told us. Not about myself, but about someone from the neighbors who are tied down or restricted," the Izvestia interlocutor explained. — It is important to contact people in order to exclude illegal actions against them — for example, you can see traces of tying on your hands.
Alexander Gaganov, a lawyer at the Region of Care social project of the Popular Front, emphasizes that law enforcement agencies should be informed about all cases of physical restraint, regardless of whether harm has occurred to health or not. After all, there is also administrative responsibility for beatings, and an article about "other violent acts." If the physical restraint was prolonged, then it can be considered as a criminally punishable unlawful deprivation of liberty: it is not necessary to wait for the consequences of binding to be brought under this article.
— It should be noted that law enforcement agencies, firstly, may be reluctant to accept relevant statements, and secondly, sometimes they themselves believe that it is normal to register citizens living in the PSNI. However, the law does not provide for situations in which fixation would be acceptable in social institutions," the expert points out.
Who allows the residents of the boarding school to be tied up
Experts note that tying is often practiced by employees themselves without any sanction from the management of the institution.
"More often than not, we are talking about unprofessional advice that employees pass on to each other, based on their own experience, rather than on the requirements of the law or modern approaches to accompanying people with disabilities," says Alexandra Yesina, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Protection Service. — Such practices are born primarily from ignorance. When staff are not trained, there are misconceptions that fixation is acceptable or the only possible way to deal with a situation.
Many employees often do not know how to identify pain syndrome — and children, especially non-verbal ones, do not sleep because they are in pain, but they cannot tell about it, adds Daria Sutyagina, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Protection Service.
— It takes an average of two to three years of systematic work for an employee to begin to perceive a resident not as an object of care, but as a person with emotions, needs and the opportunity to develop. We have seen this in the example of boarding schools in the Nizhny Novgorod region," she says.
Nevertheless, Alexander Gaganov clarifies that employees of the "Region of Care" have found entries in the documentation indicating that the bindings occur with the permission of the management of the institutions. The documents contained direct indications of the possibility of isolating the guilty person or allowing "to restrict exit from the institution until the issue of the possibility of further stay in this room, building or institution is resolved."
— Cases where illegal actions of physical restraint or isolation are explicitly prescribed in local regulations are not so common. Usually, this is still an unwritten practice, which is used primarily for the convenience of staff," the lawyer emphasizes.
How to solve the problem without linking
Residents of boarding schools need an individual approach, emphasizes Maria Ostrovskaya. For example, in the case of a teenager who refused to sleep at night, it could help to have a room where he could be moved for a while so that he would not interfere with others.
Anna Bitova also gives an example of some organizations where so-called soft rooms have appeared.: There, if a person is excited, they can vent their energy without risking themselves. In addition, there are organizations that ensure that residents, especially men and boys, have sufficient physical activity. The employment of residents of boarding schools is one of the key factors in the quality of life in such an institution.
All experts also point to the need for the boarding school to be open to volunteers, independent inspectors, etc.
— In some institutions they tell us: where will we get volunteers in our village? But there are excellent cases: for example, a children's neuropsychiatric boarding school is located next to a closed school for children with deviant behavior. They agreed that the children from this school — in fact, bullies and delinquents — are allowed to come and play with the children from the DDI for good behavior. And everyone looks absolutely happy about it! — says Anna Bitova.
Changes should begin with an analysis of the specific situation in the boarding school: in some cases it is important to review the organization of staff work, in others it is important to establish full-time employment for pupils or train staff in psychological and pedagogical methods of de-escalation, says Alexander Belov, a psychiatrist and head of the medical department at the Doroga Zhizni Foundation.
— Even in institutions with limited resources, it is possible to find solutions that help solve behavioral difficulties and reduce the risks of violating the law, to abandon dangerous and illegal practices. The most important thing is to stop perceiving unwanted behavior as a problem that needs to be suppressed at all costs. As a rule, this is a signal that a person feels bad, he is experiencing pain, fear, anxiety, or cannot otherwise communicate his needs," the Izvestia interlocutor is convinced.
But, in fact, the main measure is the disbandment of such institutions and their closure. And this work is being carried out gradually — since 2014, the number of children in neuropsychiatric boarding schools has more than doubled, says Anna Bitova. They stay at home because there are other life options, opportunities for their education, etc.
Large closed systems are always a risk, which is why experts advocate for the diversification of assistance options, explains Marina Bykova, director of the Life Path Foundation.
— We believe that most people do not need inpatient care, so we are developing assisted living practices — that is, living in ordinary conditions, in ordinary apartments or houses, with the support that is necessary. At the same time, the assistance of accompanying organizations should also be checked by external actors," she emphasizes.
If hospitals remain as a type of care, they should become much smaller and use protective practices — staffing, employee training, public control systems, the ability to file complaints and openness to the outside world, the expert concludes.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. No response had been received at the time of publication.
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