A scandal is brewing in Atyrau around the Sarmat specialised military school-lyceum. It is reported that two students have been expelled from the educational institution, and their parents have filed complaints with law enforcement agencies alleging the mistreatment of children.
According to the publication "My City", a mother of many children and holder of the "Altyn Alka" medal, Nurgul Lampussinova, published a video address in which she spoke about the unlawful expulsion of her son, a 10th-grade student. According to her, the incident occurred on 4 December.
"The teacher claimed that he allegedly found nasvay on my son, and for disciplinary violations threatened him with a knife and used a stun gun. But there is no evidence that my son used nasvay. The school did not provide any video recording, photos, or witnesses. For this, he was expelled from school, and now my child is at home, stressed," Lampussinova claims.
According to the mother, she herself took her son to a laboratory to be tested for the presence of chemical substances in his body, but nothing was found in his blood. She noted that the school administration did not take these results into account.
The director of the Sarmat school-lyceum, Nurlan Yeleyov, confirmed the fact of the student's expulsion but categorically denied the allegations of mistreatment.
"At first, the boy studied normally, but during the academic year he had Cs in the core subjects. We gave him a chance to continue his studies at the lyceum because he comes from a large family. But this academic year, his discipline and studies began to suffer. In September, he was caught using e-cigarettes; we had a meeting with him and gave a warning that, according to the contract, a second violation would result in expulsion. Then, at the beginning of December, a chemical substance – nasvay – was found on him. A report was drawn up about the confiscation of this substance, and we called the parents. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the meeting did not take place," Nurlan Yeleyov said.
According to the director, a pedagogical council meeting was scheduled for 9 December regarding this case, to which the student's mother was invited, but she did not attend.
"We sent an official letter to Lampussinova's place of work to have her released for the pedagogical council, which was scheduled for 15:00. However, the parent did not come to the pedagogical council. Later, an extraordinary meeting was called of the school's parent committee and the board of trustees, which includes the chair of the parent committee, representatives from each class, and public organisations. At this meeting, a brief summary was read out. The meeting unanimously decided to expel Lampussinova's son from school," Nurlan Yeleyov commented.
It emerged that a similar statement was submitted to the police by the parents of another tenth-grader, who was expelled four days after the first case. According to the director, the second student was expelled for systematically bullying a seventh-grader.
Nurlan Yeleyov noted that the parents have still not collected their children's documents or the expulsion order.
"I believe they themselves are violating their children's rights to education. That is, they should collect the documents and place the children in another school. Then they can appeal the expulsion decision in court. Furthermore, in September, the parents signed a contract with the school, which includes clauses stating that a student will be expelled from the school in the event of a disciplinary violation or if they have more than five Cs in a term. Additionally, these two students did not achieve the threshold score in the preliminary UNT [Unified National Testing]. Therefore, the grounds for their expulsion from the school-lyceum are clear. If our teachers mistreat children, as these parents claim, then why do they want to return to our school?" the director commented.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Atyrau Regional Police Department reported that a criminal case has been initiated under Part 2 of Article 140 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Failure to fulfil duties for the upbringing of a minor". Other details are not disclosed in the interests of the investigation.