SCHOOLGIRL THREATENED WITH TRANSFER TO ANOTHER FORM OF STUDY IN CONNECTION WITH SUPREME COURT DECISION
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 29 May 2017
On 17 May 2017, E. Mikhalevskaia, the director of a school in the village of Tomilino (Moscow province), in the presence of the school psychologist and director of security, officially handed to the parents of an eight-year-old pupil a document in which, citing the decision of the Supreme Court against Jehovah's Witnesses, they were informed about a prohibition on the territory of the school "of all actions that do not relate to the educational process." "Upon discovery of a violation of this prohibition," the director warned, "we will be forced to report the violation to police personnel and the Board of Education, and to raise the question about a transfer of the pupil to another form of education." In response to questions of the parents, the director gave them to understand that she knows about the religious faith of the family. The girl sang Jehovah's Witnesses songs and also talked about God with classmates.
This is not the first instance, since the decision of the Supreme Court, of pressure on school children; incidents have occurred in Bashkortostan and in Rostov and Kirov provinces. According to current legislation in Russia, parents have the pre-emptive right to the education and training of their children ahead of all other persons. It is on the parents that the Family Code lays the obligation of care for the "spiritual and moral development of their children." (tr. by PDS, posted 29 May 2017)
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