The potion of oblivion

How the 57th school is trying to cope with the consequences of history about harassment: reporting Sasha Sulim

On February 13, it became known that the former history teacher of the 57th school Boris Meerson and his assistant Maria Nemzer were arrested in absentia on suspicion of seduction of a minor. The case against Meerson and Nemzer was excited in the fall of 2016; Shortly before, the former graduates of the 57th school talked about sexual harassment by teachers-Boris Meerson and Boris Davidovich. The journalist of Medusa Sasha Sulim tells what happened in the 57th school in recent months-and how the school is trying to cope with the consequences of public discussion of harassment.

On February 4, the 57th school in Moscow celebrated its 140th anniversary. Tenth graders arranged a thematic cabbage, inspired by Joan Rowling's works. At the beginning of the performance, a student playing a writer portrayed how the Englishwoman writes a post on Facebook, vaguely reminiscent of the one at the end of August 2016 published on her Facebook, the journalist of “Medusa” Ekaterina Kronhaus (as a private person). A wide discussion of the sexual harassment of teachers of the 57th Boris Meerson and Boris Davidovich began to students and students of the school, and the school students began with him.

The fake Rowling wrote: “For more than 16 years I have been silent, but only now I can say that the 57th school is magical. Many circumstances forced me to hide it. But it is simply not possible to remain silent more. ” After that, the “magazilians” begin to be interested in the school by the school; A special supervisory commission appears, which should make sure "Whether the school is magical and in what sense." According to the authors of the play, which suddenly arose for the school, you can only return to the past and adding a potion of oblivion to the writer’s tea - so that she would forget what she wanted to write about, and no Facebook post happened at all.

Some school graduates of the 2016 events seemed incorrect. According to Grigory Samgin, who studied at the 57th, the cabbage is almost the only event since August 2016, which reanimated the discussion about the problems of the educational institution. According to Samghin, the performance showed that the conflict inside the school is not exhausted, but "frozen."

“Some of the graduates who themselves are victims, or simply sympathize with them, see in the cabbage a certain broadcast of the opinions of people who believe that the problems at school are primarily caused by the post of Katya Krongauz and the rally that was behind this post,” said Samgin Medusa.

A member of the Council of graduates of the 57th school, economist and professor of the University of Chicago, Konstantin Sonin, in an interview with Medusa, called the whirlpool an attempt to rethink what happened to the school: “As far as I understand, the whip is a tragic experience about how it would be good if the doctor did not utter the word“ cancer ”. At the same time, the patient would have believed that the disease began precisely when the doctor announced this. ”

Another graduate and teacher of the 57th Arman Tuganbaev (under his post and a discussion of a cabbage launched) clarified that the performance is not one hundred percent of students' work. Teachers - usually in this particular case - help tenth graders with the preparation of the script, sometimes they advise you to get rid of too sharp statements or unbearable jokes. “The main message that the students invested in the cabbage: our magical school is in the sense of beautiful and good, we just want to study, we are very disturbed by excessive attention and publicity,” Tuganbaev told Medusa.

Ten days later, one of his authors spoke about the performance-the teacher of the 57th school Mikhail Frukht. He expressed regret that the cabbage, which "seemed kind and funny, caused such a violent and ambiguous reaction," and apologized-"if our production caused someone pain."

Criminal case

On February 13, it became known that the former history teacher of the 57th school Boris Meerson was arrested in absentia in Israel in Israel. He is accused under Part 4 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation-of depraved actions committed by a group of persons in relation to the 16th anniversary of adolescents. Another person involved in the criminal case is a graduate of the school, Assistant Meerson Maria Nemzer; She was chosen the same measure of restraint. Meerson is not available for comments. Nemzer told Medusa that for “legal reasons” there would be nothing to say.

Boris Meerson’s lawyer Sergei Peshkov told the Medusa correspondent that his client was “not to blame” - and there is no evidence of his guilt in the case materials. Earlier, Peshkov spoke of the “illegality and unreasonableness” of the absentee arrest of Meerson and pointed out the absence of the victim in the case of the statement of the victim. Peshkov noted that he was surprised by the wording about the “group of persons” and believes that “its [formulation] is not there and cannot be there.”

Nevertheless, the former teacher and his assistant are put on the federal wanted list. The lawyer “does not exclude” that Meerson is still in Israel.

According to several sources of Medusa, familiar with the situation in the 57th school, the Investigative Committee decided to “give the move to this case” and bring it to the sentence (the case was initiated in September 2016). That is why, the interlocutors of Medusa believe, of all cases of Meerson’s harassment, the investigation dwelled in which the boy participated, not the girl. “According to the investigating authorities, this episode has the best judicial prospects, and same -sex love is much more impressive,” said one of the interlocutors of Medusa.

Whether the case was brought against the teacher Boris Davidovich, also accused by graduates of sexual harassment, is unknown.

Incorporated the past

Konstantin Sonin compared the current atmosphere at the school with a “severe neglected disease; A person can recover after it for a very long time. ” “The situation at school has undoubtedly improved: children no longer face the danger that Merson and Davidovich represented for them; But at the same time, there is no unity in the school in the assessment of their actions, ”Sonin said.

The school graduate Grigory Samgin agrees with him: “according to him,“ a large number of people within the school are in the stage of denial of what happened or do not speak out on this topic at all. ” This, according to Samghin, leads to freezing and silence, but not solving the problem.

Arman Tuganbaev explains this behavior of teachers by the fact that for a long time they were not ready for public discussions, which they seem to “attacks and attempts to ruin school”.

Secretary of the Governing Council of the School (created on September 9, 2016 to resolve the crisis; it included representatives of the capital's department of education, the school administration, parents, graduates, graduates and students themselves) Ilya Gorodetsky specified that a number of factors influence the state of teachers. “You need to understand that a significant part of the teachers does not read Facebook, others were not even personally familiar with Meerson, others believe that the situation fanned the press or ill -wishers of the school,” says Gorodetsky Medusa.

The idea that getting out of the crisis would be much easier if the school formulated a clear position in relation to what happened was expressed by almost all the interlocutors of Medusa. However, this has not yet happened, despite the fact that at school, in the midst of discussions on Facebook, the leadership was replaced by a leadership. On September 19, 2016, the head of the 57th school, instead of Sergei Mendelevich, was appointed head of the Lyceum No. 1581 Alexander Tverskaya, and his first deputy and scientific director of the school, former vice-rector of the Russian Economic School Andrei Bremzen. At the same time, Bremzen immediately stated that he was planning to pass certification and become a “full -fledged director” (Brerezen refused an interview with Medusa, like the rest of the school administration).

“Neither the past nor the current school administration has formed a general vision of the problem. Each time, the position was formulated, avoiding sharp corners, ”says Grigory Samgin. He clarifies that mostly graduates and graduates speak of the guilt of Meerson and Davidovich; Many teachers still believe that the accusations are biased or false.

In addition, the wife of Mendelevich Ekaterina Vishnevetskaya, who actually led the school, continues to work at the school. According to the source of Medusa, familiar with the situation in the 57th, the “presence of Vishnevetskaya” cannot but affect the team: many consider her to be guilty that the actions of Meerson in relation to the students were silent for many years, for others she is still an authority.

The representative of the parent committee in the managing council of the school, Vera Dorofeeva, believes that difficult times for teachers of the 57th school did not come at the moment when it became known about harassment, but when the educational institution had to leave the 57th Sergey Mendelevich. “Over the past 29 years, it was a Mendelevich school, they went there to study or work,” said Medusa Dorofeeva. According to her, the new leadership of the school “is engaged in writing a strategy”: “Of course, now the school will change, because it has become a completely different person, with other qualities and values.”

Transfer of power

According to the interlocutor of Medusa, it is a change of leadership, but “not a aftertaste from the scandal with Meerson and Davidovich” is today the main problem of the 57th school. “The director and his two deputy [Davidovich and Meerson] left the school, that is, she actually ended up without a steering wheel,” the source said. According to him, an important feature of this “transfer of power” was not only her unsystematicity, but also the fact that Alexander Tverskoy became the director of the school for only a year - until the certification of her supervisor Andrei Bremrezen. "The temporary leadership leaves a certain imprint, and its difficulties arise."

At the same time, three of the four teachers, who in September 2016 announced their departure from school, ultimately continue to work. During the first, in 2016, the pedagogical council was announced by Anna and Sergey Volkov, Natalya Soprunova and Nadezhda Shapiro. According to the source of Medusa, only Sergey Volkov did not return, despite the persuasion.

According to the economist Konstantin Sonin, in Russia, in principle, there are no “normal” mechanisms for changing the leadership in the field of education: the reason for the dismissal of the director, says Sonin, death, criminal case or major scandal are becoming. “This scandal also fell on a replacement of generations-and this should have happened at some point,” said Sonin “Meduza”. He added: “The new leadership needs to hold out for the first three years, and then there will be great decades - everything is for this.”

But for now, the sources of Medusa at school say, the new leadership is far from as charismatic, strong and influential as the previous one. Teachers recall how the former director of the 57th could protect the school from adverse external influences: he freed teachers from extra bureaucracy, refused a major official to enroll his child in the 57th.

Under Mendelevich, the fund financed by parents and philanthropists was also founded, funds from there went for surcharges for the salary of teachers. According to Gorodetsky, until recently, the right of signature belonged to Israel Merson (he was the director of this fund), therefore, since September 2016, the money was not transferred from the fund. As soon as the Fund is replaced by the actual director (the papers are in the process of renewal), all funds remaining on the account must be transferred to the school’s account and spent on payments to teachers.

In September 2016, two new structures appeared in the 57th school: the Managing Council and the Council of graduates. The first included representatives of the administration, parents, graduates and students of the school, in the second - only graduates. Each of the councils faced ambitious tasks: the Managing Council had to “get rid of all the negativity and save all the good”, as well as develop a system of ethical norms. The Council of graduates planned to establish and maintain ties between graduates and promote their participation in the life of the school.

The graduates who entered the Council of graduates said that, in particular, it was decided to supplement the page about the school on Wikipedia. “Now there is information about why our school is still prestigious, because this is not due to the fact that children of officials are studying there-dozens of graduates of the 57th school became professors in leading universities around the world,” he says.

In the fall of 2016, simultaneously with the investigation of the UK, an internal investigation of harassment began in the school. Certain graduates of the 57th collect evidence of cases of sexual contacts of Meerson and Davidovich with children on their own. Nevertheless, according to the source of Medusa, the victims are reluctant to contact, preferring not to return to the injury experience.

So far, not a single graduate of the 57th appealed to the investigating authorities with charges against the former deputy director Boris Davidovich. As the interlocutors at school told Medusa, many injured graduates were enough that Davidovich personally called them and apologized.

On the second floor of the main building of the 57th school in Maly Znamensky Lane, the photo exhibition of Boris Davidovich is still hanging, it is considered a very talented photographer. “What should we do? To disrupt her and trample it? It would only become worse, ”Medusa told Medusa one of the school teachers.

Sasha Sulim