A girl studying at a vocational school in Chisinau accuses the institution’s administration of discrimination on the grounds of disease and mental disability. The girl’s parents maintain that the school’s administration and her mates harassed her physically, offered her inappropriate living conditions in the dorm, humiliated her and accused her of theft, IPN reports.
In a meeting of the Council for the Prevention and Combating of Discrimination, the victim’s adoptive mother said the girl was admitted to the Vocation School No. 1 in Chisinau based on her grades from the secondary school and of the status of orphan and the disability certificate. After the school’s administration saw her medical records and the girl personally, they started to ignore and discriminate against her. The girl was subject to additional medical examinations and general knowledge tests. The doctors established that she was able to study. But these results were substituted with other results and the girl was expelled.
The girl’s mother threatened the school’s principal that she will make this case public. Only after this, the girl was offered a place in the dorm, in a room with another five persons. In the dorm, the girl was again subject to humiliation and discrimination. She kept her food products and the personal belongings under the bed. The roommates isolated her in a corner, behind the wardrobe. They often accused her of stealing money and possessions. The girl was humiliated and even beaten.
“She is a helpless child that endured enough. She coped with the pressure and showed that she is not mentally ill,” said the girl’s adoptive mother.
Representatives of the Vocational School denied the accusations made against them, saying many of the over 1,200 students studying at the lyceum suffer from disabilities or are orphans. “The administration does not make a difference between them,” said Ludmila Ierushevski, the school’s deputy head.
She also said that the girl was expelled because she had bad grades. The student repeatedly took the exams at her mother’s insistence, who asked adjusting her grades so that she cold finish the academic year and then go to another education institution. “We could not expel the girl in the middle of the school year so that she stayed at home isolated,” stated Ludmila Ierushevski.
According to her, the blame for the disagreements in the dorm was borne by the girl as she didn’t respect the personal hygiene, slept dressed and ate spoiled food. Her roommates warned her it was bad what she was doing, but the girl perceived this as attacks on her.
The Council for the Prevention and Combating of Discrimination will examine the case and will decide whether it is a case of discrimination on the grounds of disease and disability or not. The Council’s decisions are available on www.dis.md, said Council member Doina Ioana Straisteanu.
