Fight Between Kindergarten Staff and Parents

According to hraparak.am, a staff member of Kindergarten No. 8 in Hrazdan physically assaulted parents. The scuffle occurred after some parents went to the Hrazdan Mayor Sevak Mikaelyan's office to voice their concerns about fundraising practices at the kindergarten. This did not sit well with the kindergarten director, and one of her close aides began to pull and hit the parents who had gone to the municipality to complain about the director.

After the incident, parents reported the altercation to the police. To confirm the information, we contacted the press secretary of the Hrazdan City Hall, Mais Poghosyan: “There were internal issues at the kindergarten, that is, parent-educator problems. I do not want to go into details about whether money was the reason. Both parents, educators, and the director came to see the community leader. The conflict between them was resolved through the community leader. Two disciplinary actions were taken against the director within the legal limits. The police were present at the kindergarten at the parents' request. The parents filed a report with the police, and they responded accordingly. At this moment, the director is on leave.”

We asked Poghosyan whether the director would continue working after her leave. “I cannot say; it will be seen later,” was the response.

From the Hrazdan police department, we learned that a scuffle indeed took place at the kindergarten, and the individual involved was held accountable. The fundraising was conducted by parent committees, which did not constitute a criminal offense; therefore, a criminal case was dismissed.

It is worth noting that in our previous reports, we discussed the director’s activities, specifically that three years ago, she collected money from parents for the renovation of the kindergarten, while the renovation was ultimately funded by the municipality. After all this, Danielyan not only did not reprimand the director but also ‘rewarded’ her by temporarily appointing her as the head of the education, culture, and sports department at the municipality. In 2018, she was reappointed as the director of the kindergarten.

Checks carried out by the Kotayk Regional Administration revealed that former mayor Aram Danielyan had appointed Alvard Martirosyan as the director of Kindergarten No. 8 without the consent of the council, violating the requirements of part 1 of Article 35 of the local self-government law.