"Laughing at Putin is already extremism"

Pupils of the Vologda Lyceum created a group with memes on VKontakte. The group was dispersed, schoolchildren were threatened by the police and Roskomnadzor

Schoolchildren created a group with memes. They laughed at classmates, teachers and director

The VKontakte group entitled “Carton 83” in March 2018 was created by sixth graders of the Vologda multidisciplinary lyceum - as follows from the description on its website, an educational institution for gifted children from all over the region. Initially, the group was closed, but in this academic year, schoolchildren opened it. In total, it consisted of about 80 people.

According to the ninth -grader, the Lyceum, who asked not to indicate his name, joked about teachers and other schoolchildren in the group. “There was no goal to offend anyone. We had a disclaimer: “The group has an entertaining character and no more. The group does not call for anyone to insult,” he says. A student of the eighth grade, who also asked not to indicate his name, recalls: “They posted something about teachers, there was definitely no offensive. For example, about a mathematics teacher who sits on the phone in the lessons and looks at memes herself. Or about the physical education teachers who swear. Or about the director of such a meme: “What are the vampires - garlic. What are the mosquitoes - Moskitol. What am I afraid of - and there is a photo of the director”. ”

The school administration learned about the existence of the group when one of the schoolchildren reposted the meme about a seventh grader who loves to play the phone too much in the lessons - and began to take measures.

Parents of schoolchildren were called to the director and said that the warnings were over and laugh at the country's president is extremism

On December 3, the father of one of the creators of the group was called to the director. In addition to him, at that meeting was the student’s mother, who made the most posts in the group. “In the office, the director Andrei Platonov, the head teacher and the teacher were waiting for us,” says the student’s father, who asked not to indicate his name. - They began to shake in front of us printed on the sheets of A4 memes. And then they said that in the last academic year the prosecutor’s office had already come to the school and warned the students that extremism was prohibited. And now, as the audience expressed, the “warnings are over”. ” According to him, the head teacher of the lyceum added that among the memes there was “something about Putin”, and laughing at him is already extremism.

The ninth -grader of the lyceum in a conversation with Medusa says that there was nothing offensive about Putin in the group: "We would not joke against the state - we understand what is possible and what is impossible." He says that for the “extremism” of his teacher, most likely, they accepted a photograph where schoolchildren are grimacing against the background of a portrait of the Russian president in the lobby of the school. In addition, the student suspects that the director could be offended by jokes: "Many people do not like him."

The school administration threatened the students with “administrative supervision”, and the director, according to him, wrote a statement to the police

A student of the 11th grade of the Lyceum told Medusa that on December 3, one of the head teachers went around the 7th and 8th grades in which most subscribers study, and said that "those who do not leave the group will go to the director." By December 6, out of 80 members of the group, 28 were left in it, and almost all of its content was removed.

One of the eighth -graders says that the head teacher came to them before the lesson: “She said that there are no more schools in the city in which teachers would sit with students until night. And we, they say, allow ourselves this. ” Then, according to him, a computer science teacher came to their class and added that nothing was gone anywhere on the Internet and that even what was removed there 20 years ago. After that, the class teacher, teaching law, performed. He threatened the children that Roskomnadzor was going to school and that "administrative accounting is a terrible thing."

The Office of the Roskomnadzor in the Vologda region Medusa said that they did not know anything about the story with the Cardon 83 group, but suggested that "there would be some kind of performance."

The director of the lyceum Andrei Platonov said “Medusa”: “In the group, memes on teachers of an offensive nature were placed. Photos that were secretly shot during classes were used, and in accordance with the Charter of the Lyceum, photographing [inside the building] is prohibited. A statement to the police is written. The police are versed. Regarding the accusations of extremism and anti -state activity, these are speculations of parents. ”

The father of one of the creators of the Carton 83 group told Medusa that on December 7 a general parent meeting was scheduled at the Lyceum. “There, as we understood with other parents, they will tell us how to make memes,” he suggests.

Polina Eremenko with the participation of Irina Kravtsova