«This is not true»: the director of the boarding school in Mykolaiv region denied that evacuated children were not allowed to go to the shelter during the alarms

The director of the Antonivka Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region has denied a recent statement by the Ombudsman's Office Monitoring Group that evacuated children are not allowed to go to shelters.

Valentyna Skopina said this at the Mykolaiv Regional Council's Commission on Education, according to NikVesti.

The group's statement said that pupils of the Mykolaiv Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation, who were evacuated to the institution during the war, were not allowed to go to the shelter, and the children themselves were waiting for the alarm to end in the assembly hall.

She also noted that there was never any talk of banning the centre's children from entering the shelter.

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«We have repaired the shelter. And the fact that children were not allowed there is not true. The children go with us during the educational process. Firstly, their supervisor had to write an order according to which the children would be moved to the shelter. There was no such order. I can't even say why they didn't take them. All our children... We have a place in the shelter. No one forbade us to go. There was no such thought. This does not correspond to reality,» said Valentyna Skopina.

At the same time, the head of the Department of Education, Alla Velikhovska, noted that it is unknown who exactly was interviewed by the monitoring group and who did not go down to the shelter. At the same time, all children now go to the shelter after the regional council's inspections.

«There were no representatives of the institution present, so it's impossible to say for sure. How many children did not go to the shelter, why? Especially if you know the children. The shelter is really next to the institution, you have to go out into the yard. It has all the certificates and fully complies with the law. As of today, we have worked with everyone. All the algorithms have been written and now all children are obliged to visit the shelter,» said Alla Velikhovska.

As a reminder, Alla Velikhovska, head of the Education Department of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, accused the media of publicising the results of an inspection of the orphanages conducted by representatives of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights a month ago, which revealed a large number of violations.

Violations of children's rights in special schools in Mykolaiv region

Lysohirsk special school in Pervomaisk district. Photo by human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko

As you know, a member of the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office, human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko shared photos of a public inspection of the Lysa Hora Special School in Mykolaiv region. It should be noted that the institution was one of those inspected by the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office. According to the lawyer, there are currently 156 children in the institution, and 98 staff members are supposed to take care of them.

In addition to the Lysa Hora special school, the monitoring group found violations in a number of institutions. For example, it turned out that children who were evacuated to the Antonivka Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region were not allowed to enter the protective structures, they were forced to stay in the assembly hall, while only students of the institution used the shelters.

It should be recalled that deputies of the Mykolaiv Regional Council were going to check the situation at the Antonivka Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region (formerly the Antonikav boarding school) in December last year , but this never happened, and the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office arrived there from Kyiv earlier.