“You don’t have to worry about being taken away”: the Surgut court left a boy with Down syndrome in the family of guardians

The city court of Surgut determined the place of residence of six-year-old Ivan (name changed. -

), a boy with Down syndrome, with his guardians, Svetlana and Sergey.

The biological mother of the boy was deprived of parental rights by a court decision.

In addition, the boy's mother and father will have to pay child support until their son reaches the age of 18.

“At the meeting, both the prosecutor and the guardianship said that they see no reason to deprive the biological father of parental rights,” Svetlana, the boy’s guardian, told RT.

- My husband and I thought that Vanya would be taken away from us.

After a 40-minute break, the judge read out the decision.

I exhaled!

Vanya stays with us, and at least you don’t have to worry that they will break into us and take him away. ”

As RT previously wrote, the child got into the family of Surgut residents Svetlana and Sergey in the spring of 2020 from the Stavropol boarding school, where he was almost from birth.

His biological parents left the boy in the maternity hospital and signed a permit for adoption.

When Vanya was four years old, he had to leave the orphanage for a boarding school for children with disabilities.

“Then the director of the orphanage found Vanya’s father and grandmother and explained that in such places there is often no proper care for disabled children,” Svetlana recalls.

She recommended that they take the child, but the father refused.

Vanya's grandmother also did not want to take him, and the biological mother did not show herself in any way from the birth of her son, did not react to the agenda, she had no contacts at that time.

Svetlana and Sergey have a 35-year-old son, he also has Down syndrome, so they already had experience in raising a child with a disability.

Together with Vanya, the couple took custody of his friend from the same group.

In addition, the family has been raising three step-children for seven years.

According to Svetlana, she and her husband planned to apply for the adoption of boys, but due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, this process had to be postponed.

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“My husband and I are people of the age, I am 57, he is 62,” she continues.

— At the time of covid, the entire document flow switched to electronic format, for us it turned out to be too complicated.

In addition, we were assured that the delay would not change anything, since Vanya's biological parents agree to his adoption and do not pretend to anything.

In the spring of 2022, Svetlana and Sergey turned to the guardianship authorities to continue processing documents for Vanya.

It turned out that his biological father paid alimony to an orphanage in Stavropol for two years, although this money was supposed to be transferred to the boy's new family.

Guardianship advised filing for child support, and a lawsuit was filed in June 2022.

“Papa Vanya disputed the claim, and also applied to the guardianship with a statement that he wants to take the child for himself.

He filed a lawsuit on his part to transfer the boy, Svetlana recalls.

“Since he is not deprived of parental rights, there were no legal obstacles to this.”

Vanya's biological father said that he regularly visited his son when he was in the child's home, Svetlana continues: “He said that he came to him at least once a month.

At the same time, dad did not know what concomitant diseases the boy had, nor what level of development he was at.

For example, he said that Vanya was talking, that he distinguished and named colors.

And this is not so!

He is only now beginning to speak some words and does not yet know the names of flowers.

Well, Vanya did not react to him at the meeting, for him he is some kind of outside uncle.

When Ivan was sent to a new family, then dad, according to him, tried for a long time and unsuccessfully to find the boy, Svetlana said.

“It is not clear why he did not apply for custody, because they are obliged to give him new contacts,” she wonders.

- In addition, the employees of the orphanage, where Vanya was, say that dad never visited him.

There are no corresponding entries in the book of visits either.”

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The court session to determine the place of residence of the child was held on March 9, 2023.

According to Svetlana, the court considered that since a man paid alimony, albeit to an orphanage, and not to guardians, he fulfilled his father's duties, so there is no reason to deprive him of parental rights for non-payment.

In addition, the court deprived the biological mother of parental responsibilities.

“Mom was found through the court when this whole situation began,” Svetlana notes.

— I hesitated to call her for a long time, but in the end I dialed her number.

I say: "Hello, I'm the mother of your son."

She asked if she knew what was going on.

It turned out that she knows the situation only from the words of her ex-husband.

I wrote him a power of attorney for all actions - and, in general, stepped aside.

I sent her a photo, a video of Vanina, and said that I would be glad if she managed to establish contact with him.

But she didn't want to talk.

According to the court order, the boy under 18 years old will live with guardians.

The spouses are not going to interfere with his communication with his own father.

“I doubt, of course, that dad will often fly from Stavropol to Surgut, it’s still not cheap.

But maybe it will work via video link if he misses his son so much,” Svetlana adds.

- We still obviously have to fight for Vanya, because, as I understand it, dad will file an appeal.

The only thing that upsets us is that we will not be able to adopt a child, because dad is not deprived of parental rights.

But still, we are very happy that our son stays with us.”