Since the end of January 2025, 11-year-old Anya has not been attending classes due to disputes between her mother and the management of the Lyubertsy “Interest” gymnasium about a metal detector. It is unknown how the girl will study in the fifth grade. Her mother Olga believes that radiation from the frames can cause cancer, and asks to let her daughter in through a different entrance, and at the gymnasium they insist on going through a metal detector according to safety rules. We tell you how a child does not study because both sides of the conflict stubbornly stand their ground - the harm of the framework to health has not been proven, but schoolchildren are not required by law to go through them.
The girl's name has been changed at the request of her mother.
The name has been changed at the request of the heroine.
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“Why should my child be a guinea pig?”
11-year-old Anya is studying in the fourth grade at gymnasium No. 16 “Interest” in the city of Lyubertsy in the Moscow region, but she has not been to class for four months. A year and a half ago, when the girl entered the third grade, her mother Olga wrote a statement to the gymnasium asking for her daughter to have an alternative route to the gymnasium, so that Anya would not have to go through a metal detector. Olga believes that radiation from the frames causes cancer.
Olga is about 50 years old and is raising her daughter alone. The woman graduated from a sewing school, worked as a labor teacher, then got a job as a secretary-clerk. According to her, she first thought about the dangers of frames during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when she saw a video about it on YouTube. Since then, she has repeatedly found videos and texts on the same topic. Previously, Olga says, while working at school, she “walked through the borders like a sheep,” and then she began to avoid metal detectors in the metro and ask for manual searches at train stations.
Already when Anya was in fourth grade, Olga learned that her daughter was embarrassed to knock on the door next to the main entrance and entered the gymnasium through a metal detector. Then the mother began to accompany Anya to school and ask to be let in through another entrance. This continued until the end of January 2025, until the gymnasium said that Anya could only enter through the frame, like other children. According to Olga, this happened after she asked the gymnasium for documents for a metal detector to make sure it was safe for health: starting from the next school year, Anya’s class will study in another building, where they refused to provide her with an alternative passage. They did not let the woman past the frame, and she wrote a statement to the police.
When she came to pick up her daughter from the gymnasium later that day, Anya, according to the mother, was not allowed out through the alternative passage, citing the director’s order. Olga called the duty department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after which, the woman claims, the guard let the girl out through another door. In winter, Olga wrote two statements to the police, complaining that her daughter was not allowed to go to school, bypassing the rules, although she was ready to show the contents of her backpack and pockets. According to the mother, the gymnasium violates several articles of the Criminal Code. The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued her a resolution refusing to initiate a case.
Olga wrote statements on January 27 and February 24 (the editors have a photo of one of the documents at their disposal).
Olga, in particular, pointed to the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 140 (refusal to provide a citizen with information), 201 (abuse of authority), 236 (violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules), 237 (concealment of information about circumstances that pose a danger to the life or health of people), 330 (arbitrariness).
For several weeks, the woman came with her daughter to the gymnasium, but the next door was not opened - and they returned home. The documents for the metal detector were never shown to her at the gymnasium, Olga is indignant. She believes that the frames are not only dangerous for the health of children, but also useless for preventing terrorist attacks, especially since the gymnasium has video surveillance and security:
- Why should my child be a laboratory mouse? I shouldn't take my word for it that this thing [the metal detector] is safe. It's like putting it in a microwave. I don’t want to risk my child, I don’t want her to get cancer in 10-15 years. And the fact that the frames are electromagnetic are words that can be written in the registration certificate. Maybe there is even X-ray radiation there. In the USSR, when I studied, there were no boundaries in schools.
What experts say about the safety of metal detectors
As the World Health Organization (WHO) notes , humans are everywhere surrounded by natural and anthropogenic sources of electromagnetic fields (EMF). Thus, electricity in each plug socket leads to the formation of low-frequency EMF. Experts consider it “absolutely obvious” that the increase in the risk of cancer under the influence of EMF is extremely small.
WHO reports that a number of epidemiological studies (these are aimed at studying the causes and distribution of diseases) suggest that there is a non-significant increase in the risk of children contracting leukemia when exposed to weak magnetic fields at home. “However, scientists do not make a general conclusion that such results indicate the presence of a cause-and-effect relationship between exposure to fields and disease,” the experts explain. Laboratory studies and experiments on animals, WHO adds, do not confirm that EMFs cause cancer.
WHO acknowledges that there are gaps in knowledge about the biological effects of EMF, and further research is needed. But he notes: “Most scientists and medical professionals agree that even if there are any health consequences from low-level EMF, they are likely to be extremely minor compared to other health risks that people face in everyday life.”
Rospotrebnadzor has repeatedly stated that passage through metal detectors is safe. “<...> due to their design features, these devices do not create electromagnetic fields in the surrounding space with intensity exceeding standard values, and do not have a harmful effect on public health,” the departmentexplained in response to questions from parents about the safety of frames in schools.
Olga has no plans to look for another school for her daughter: “What if I can’t see her off? Worry about how she walks? We should not suffer because of the director's whim. The gymnasium is near the house. Why should I run away from [gymnasium director] Snegireva?” - Olga protests emotionally. When asked at what age a child, in her opinion, can go to school on his own, she found it difficult to answer. But she was indignant: she didn’t want to worry about her daughter getting raped or getting hit by a car.
Olga does not want to transfer her daughter to family education because she works. Anya does not receive homework: according to Olga, she cannot reach the class teacher, and the family does not use the school portal. Olga explains this by problems with her and her daughter’s vision: “I don’t want to go blind. My eyesight has already been very badly damaged due to the fact that I’m sitting here writing complaints about Snegireva.” Olga says that asking for homework assignments from her classmates won’t work either: “At the suggestion of [teacher’s name], they don’t like my child and constantly bully her... The class teacher has tried more than once to denigrate and slander her.”
The director of the gymnasium, Irina Snegireva, told Olga that according to the regulations of their gymnasium, homework is given out through the “My School” portal or written down in a paper diary.
The editors have the answer.
The regulations are devoted to how to obtain information about the progress of schoolchildren. Regarding homework, it is only mentioned that students independently, without the supervision of a teacher, write them down in a diary.
At the end of March, the police in Lyubertsy received a letter from the gymnasium. Irina Snegireva reported in it that Anya has a “complex character”, that the girl can come to school in the winter “with bare legs”, studies poorly and “threatens children (even with a knife)” - this, according to the director, is due to the situation in the family. Snegireva writes that for Olga, only her own opinion is important and that she “wants to break the current teaching system and return to Soviet times.”
Olga assures that everything written is “fake garbage and fantasies.” Another mother , whose child studies at gymnasium No. 16, says that Anya is an “ordinary child”: “Active, communicates well, speaks normally, is cleanly dressed. Yes, my mother (we are not friends, we met once) has her own complaints about the gymnasium. There is something that can be done, in my opinion: still take the child to school. But at the same time fight [for your rights].”
The woman requested anonymity.
"For official use" in the public domain
This is not the only case in Russia where parents do not want to let their children enter school through metal detectors. For example, such situations occurred in Elektrostal and Stupino near Moscow, in Voronezh Novokhopyorsk , and in Khabarovsk . Parents are concerned not only about the impact of the frames on health, but also about the fact that they will become an obstacle to the evacuation of children during an emergency.
Director of “Interest” Irina Snegireva gave Olga several answers to her queries about the metal detector. The head of the gymnasium explained its need by the requirements for anti-terrorist protection of schools, citing Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 2, 2019 No. 1006.
Photos of the documents are at the disposal of the editors.
The director assured that the level of the electromagnetic field from the frames is comparable to “the operation of any electrical device connected to the mains (TV, computer, iron, etc.).” Irina Snegireva clarified that the gymnasium has UltraScan A600 and “Arka” arched metal detectors installed, but did not provide documents for them. She explained her refusal by the fact that the law on education does not indicate the right of parents to demand them. The director assured that the gymnasium has a technical passport and a certificate of conformity for the metal detector, but they are marked “For official use.”
At the same time, certificates of conformity for the mentioned models of metal detectors are freely available, for example, on the websites of manufacturers and online stores where such equipment is sold ( UltraScan A600 , “ Arch ”).
Lawyers say parents have the right to request documents for a metal detector. “If they have any questions, the school is obligated to answer. It’s not easy to say that [documents] are “for official use only.” Let them explain why they are for official use,” comments lawyer Maria Vakarintseva from Moscow.
Lawyer Nikita Sorokin from St. Petersburg adds that such a refusal can be appealed to the prosecutor's office or court. In addition, parents can contact Rospotrebnadzor with a request to check the technical characteristics of the metal detector and its certificate of conformity.
Olga contacted a representative of one of the companies that supplies UltraScan A600 frames via messenger. She was sent a certificate of conformity and a laboratory test report . However, Olga was not convinced: “The certificate is not an indicator of harmlessness. To validate the equipment, it needs to be tested on volunteers for many years. Such studies have not been conducted in our country. Should I push my child through the borders until her graduation and hope that she won’t be diagnosed with cancer?”
Such a metal detector is located in the building in which classes are held at the elementary school.
The protocol states that the frame model complies with the technical regulations of the Customs Union “On the safety of low-voltage equipment” and “Electromagnetic compatibility of technical equipment.”
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We didn't agree
The chairman of the gymnasium's parents' council sent an appeal to State Duma deputy Sardana Avksentyeva about violations of the rights to education at the gymnasium. She redirected the request, and the parents received a response from the administration of Lyubertsy: it, with reference to the regulations of the gymnasium, states that in order to refuse to go through the framework, a medical report on contraindications (for example, the presence of a pacemaker) is required.
New Tab found other exceptions to this provision: a diplomat or foreign representative of the state may refuse to go through the frames - then they will be checked with a hand-held metal detector. And they can even turn off the frames for the duration of the passage, if there is no other entrance to the building.
The director of the gymnasium, Irina Snegireva, in one of her answers to Olga, assured that the teachers and administration of the institution do not interfere with her daughter’s studies. Moreover, “every morning the teacher on duty and the deputy director on duty” invite the girl to enter the school and go to class. In one of the videos that Olga showed, you can actually see that a gymnasium employee invites Anya to enter through the frame. But the girl replies: “I refuse.” Snegiryova added that by not letting her daughter go to school, Olga is violating the law on education, according to which education in Russia is compulsory until the 9th grade.
The document is at the disposal of the editors.
Lawyer Maria Vakarintseva says that Olga needs to either continue to fight for a pass, or transfer her daughter to another school or to family education. Otherwise, the gymnasium has every reason to charge the mother under Article 5.35 of the Administrative Code for not taking the child to school.
Article 5.35 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (on the failure of parents to fulfill their responsibilities for the maintenance and upbringing of minors) provides for a warning or a fine of 100 to 500 rubles.
Olga appeals to the fact that no law stipulates that children must go through a metal detector to get to class. There is no such requirement in the mentioned resolution No. 1006.
The head of the supervision department of the Ministry of Education of the Moscow Region, Margarita Guselnikova, issued a warning to the gymnasium on March 18, proposing to “consider a different way of inspecting students’ personal belongings.” The school’s regulations , the ministry noted, “do not provide for [other] options for admitting students to the gymnasium,” which violates the right to education. But Anya is not allowed to bypass the framework.
Information about this is in the “Unified Register of Inspections”.
Regulations on access and intra-facility regime in municipal educational institution gymnasium No. 16 “Interest”.
Olga also does not intend to give in. When asked what she would do next, the woman replied that she would file a lawsuit against the director of the gymnasium.
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