In February 2019, a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Barnaul school No. 13, Tatyana Kuvshinnikova, published several photos taken at the winter swimming competitions on the opening of the Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk. On one of them she is captured in a sports swimsuit, on the other - in a dress above the knees.
The 38-year-old woman has been involved in sports for a long time and is a member of the Polar Bears, a federation of hardening and winter swimming in the Altai Territory. The photos were taken before the swim on Lake Pionerskoe.
One of the parents found the pictures with the participation of the teacher too frank, as a result, the photos reached the school director Lyudmila Kuznetsova. She agreed with the claims against the teacher and fired her.
Nevertheless, the parents of many students supported the teacher and asked the school authorities not to dismiss Kuvshinnikova. The principal agreed to leave the teacher, warning that her work would be closely monitored and controlled.
Control, according to Kuvshinnikova, turned into pressure, which she could not stand and wrote a letter of resignation at her own request. At school, where RT asked for a comment, the teacher refused to discuss the situation around the dismissal.
In turn, Tatyana herself agreed to talk with RT and tell what exactly was the reason for her leaving.
- Tatiana, how did the school management justify the decision on your dismissal in February when you published the photo?
- The director said that my photos are “a stain on the school’s reputation,” and so only prostitutes dress. All these are her words. She said that they sent her a photo with the question: “What is this? Do teachers dress like that now? So it is possible?". And then Kuznetsova herself told me everything. And I still do not know which of the parents complained.
I was accused of ignorance and lack of education! And then I found out that initially the director had planned to dismiss me without any explanations. I think that then I would definitely go to court.
At the same time, I had a very good relationship with most of the parents, they were shocked when they learned that they were firing me. As a result, my pupil's mother stood up for me, who together with me is engaged in winter swimming. Several more people joined her, collected signatures to leave me at work.
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- Your students also engaged in winter swimming?
- Yes, the students also studied, walked with me, sometimes six, eight people each! Not everyone, of course, but went in small groups, even took part in competitions, won prizes. They liked it. And this is a sport!
And there are children from dysfunctional families, they all the more need to be attracted to a healthy lifestyle, it is necessary that they have a good, positive example before their eyes. And who, if not the teachers, should set such an example?
Some parents do not understand, but it is good that the majority are adequate.
- Why did you still decide to leave work at school number 13, was it connected with the checks that the management promised you?
- Yes, there were checks. After the February scandal, I was told that now there would be unscheduled inspections of the education committee, allegedly because I blew up the scandal and took the rubbish out of the hut. The director warned that she herself would come to my lesson and watch me conduct a dictation. However, she never came that day.
But then they sent a head teacher to my class without warning. The whole lesson she found fault with literally everything: for example, on which side of the board to write homework, and on which side - cool. On that day, not all the children handed over the notebooks - again, they began to find out why. I didn’t give marks to some students for their class work, because there were guys who wrote just a little bit - I was criticized for that too.
At the end of the lesson the head teacher promised that she would come again. But I went on the same day and wrote a letter of resignation, because I decided that it was already impossible to work in such a tense situation.
My son is studying at the same school, this year he has the USE. What worries me most is that he will have problems with this story.
- So your son has been affected by this conflict with the school authorities?
- He studies here for the second year, but he also did not take root in the team, he does not even want to go to graduation. Transfer from school, of course, is too late - exams on the nose. The main thing for me is to give him to finish my studies. He has math problems and he is working with a tutor.
I am very afraid that the pressure will only grow and we will not be allowed to finish school at all. The son wants to enroll in acting, five times a week he attends preparatory courses. And while he constantly does the math - because of this, it does not go all the attention paid to the literature, which he has a specialized subject. But, despite everything, he continues to put twos in math!
I do not know anymore, this bias against my son or something else. Tomorrow my husband and I will talk to the director, and if we do not get any explanation, then I will voice this problem everywhere, and I will also write to the prosecutor’s office.
Besides, now, when I am not working, I had to refuse from classes with tutors, because there is not enough money for this. My salary was 11–12 thousand rubles. My husband is not forced to work now.
- Do you plan to continue working in the field of school education?
- In school number 13, I worked only from the beginning of the year, they gave me the fifth grade. It was interesting to me, I took it enthusiastically, I wanted to bring my class to graduation, to see with my own eyes how children grow up, to teach them good things.
Of course, I did not plan to leave at all, everything suited me. But after all these scandals there is no desire to return to school.
I am an artist by my second education, so I will go to an art school or to a private one. It is easier for me to work with a small team, and even more so with grateful people who are interested in my work.