Perm official denies that students were expelled over cancer diagnoses

Pavel Mikov, Russia's Children's Right Commissioner for the Perm Region, denied reports on Wednesday that a child had been expelled from a local school due to her cancer diagnosis.

"No one expelled the girl from the school. The only [termination document signed] was that [signaling] her successful completion of nine grades and receiving a basic, general education," said Mikov in an interview with Meduza in response to the student's complaint. Such documents, he said, are available to all students who successfully complete ninth grade.

After the end of ninth grade, students' parents must either apply for their children to continue their studies at the school in question or transfer their children to another school, said the commissioner.

"The girl did not write a statement about transitioning to the tenth grade at this school [and so] she moved to another educational institution," Mikov said.

The Commissioner said that the student approached him personally with a complaint about having been expelled from school. The mother of the child was unaware of this development. According to Mikov, the act would have been a "psycho-emotional reaction caused by difficulties in adapting to a new group of people."

According Mikov, he spoke with the head of charity fund Bereginya, which helps children with cancer. "She too is shocked; this information came as a surprise to her ... I, frankly, cannot not trust a nongovernmental organization," said the commissioner.

Mikov has no information about the expulsion of another student undergoing treatment for cancer either.

A child can be expelled from the school, said Mikov, only with the approval of the commission on Juvenile Affairs and Rights. The grammar school had made no petitions in regards to either of the students in question, he said.

• News source Tchaikovsky News reported on the girls' expulsion on Tuesday. The publication wrote that the school director Marina Rusinova had demanded that the two students, who had missed significant part of the previous academic year due to undergoing cancer treatment, but who were, nevertheless, home-schooled, leave the school. In an interview with local media, Rusinova called these allegations a lie.