The Investigative Committee for the Krasnoyarsk Territory became interested in the incident at a school in the city of Sosnovoborsk. The school’s leadership proposed transferring the ten-year-old boy to home schooling because of their inappropriate hairstyles. The child came to classes with shaved temples and dyed hair, gathered in a ponytail. Later, when the media learned about the conflict, the Minister of Education of the Territory Svetlana Makovskaya sided with her family and apologized for the actions of the school administration.
The incident occurred at school on September 5. The fourth grader came to the lessons with an unusual hairstyle. His whiskey was shaved and the remaining hair was dyed blond and piled in a ponytail. As the child explained, he is a fan of football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic and copied the hairstyle of the idol. The boy himself also plays football.
However, the school leadership did not appreciate the new image. Director Lyudmila Mikhailovna, according to the boy, pulled off an elastic band for his hair and forbade him to come in such an allegedly indecent form. And her deputy for educational work strongly advised her parents to transfer him to home schooling.
The school administration referred to a new provision on the appearance of students. One of his points prohibits going to school with extravagant haircuts and hairstyles, as well as hair dyed in unnatural shades.
Minister sided with the child
As told RT by the press secretary of the Ministry of Education of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Nadezhda Kvitkovskaya, after the story found public resonance, the Minister of Education Svetlana Makovskaya met with her parents and apologized to them for the actions of the school administration.
“Parents told the minister that their child was strongly and incorrectly advised to change their hairstyle and go to home school if the requirements of the school are not satisfied. Parents were also outraged that later the director, without their permission, removed the boy from the lessons so that he would give interviews to reporters when the incident became known. This is unacceptable, ”Kvitkovskaya explained.
According to the spokeswoman, Makovskaya will personally meet with the school principal and staff of the education department to conduct an explanatory conversation.
“There are more than 346 thousand students in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and they are all completely different. At the same time, during the transitional age, the guys express their own individuality through non-standard hairstyles and colored hair. There are many such students. Among them there are excellent students, winners of olympiads, gifted children in various fields. A non-standard hairstyle is a student's private matter. The school has the right to establish uniform recommendations for students ’clothing so that it meets the generally accepted standards of business style in society, but no more than that,” says Kvitkovskaya.
Now, a submission has been sent to this school with a demand to revise the provision on the school uniform and appearance of students and the ban on non-standard hairstyles.
After a wide resonance, the Investigative Committee became interested in the case.
“The regional investigative authorities launched a check on the fact of the conflict in the secondary school No. 4 of the city of Sosnovoborsk. The audit will be made a procedural decision. Investigators need to establish whether there was an excess of official authority in the actions of the school’s administration, ”Olga Degid told RT representative to the Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In turn, the boy’s parents refused to communicate with RT. The Ministry of Education said that the family does not want the situation to be discussed in the media, and the boy continues to attend classes without changing his image. In addition, the department said that the school principal began to receive messages with threats and insults.