VIDEO: "The Recording Device is Attached to the Child's Clothes and Sent to Kindergarten" - Anna Javakhyan

Former member of the Yerevan City Council Anna Javakhyan wrote on her Facebook page: "Since I know the background, let me present it briefly. This parent has approached me several times in recent months, saying, 'I suspect that the educator is rough with my child, maybe even hits them, what should I do?' I told her to talk to the educator, see what they say, and speak with the principal to hear their side.

She went, spoke, and of course, they denied everything, giving 'classic' responses — the child is imagining things, you are focusing too much on it, and so on. Since we are dealing with a parent who is a journalist, she finds a way. She attaches a recording device to her child's clothes and sends them to kindergarten.

The recording she published is not the most terrifying one. In one of the recordings I have heard, you can even hear the sound of a slap. And even with these horrifying recordings in hand, this person publishes nothing and decides to take the legal route. I guide her to the education department of the Malatia-Sebastia administrative district and to the Yerevan Education Department.

The parent is welcomed properly at both places, listened to attentively, and the fact of the anti-pedagogical approach in the recordings is noted, assuring her that legal proceedings will be initiated. They send her home, and this educator continues to work in the same kindergarten; the principal does not dismiss her. A lovely demonstrative meeting is held, inspectors from the administrative district are summoned to be present. Apparently, parents close to the educator sing praises at the meeting, and the principal considers the matter closed.

When the complaining parent continues her protests, she is told, 'Let's give the educator a serious reprimand and forget about it.' And one child, who has already been traumatized, will still be in the company of the person who is the author of their trauma. Magnificent, no doubt, but has nothing to do with pedagogy.

The publication of this recording is a cry of desperation. A child in our country is not protected by the state. This is the message that a person sees in the depths of this story, independent of themselves. If this is not the case, then tomorrow, as soon as today, both the educator and the principal, who has been aware and has done nothing, should be dismissed, along with their powerful sponsor, who surely exists; otherwise, at least someone would have remembered the child's rights in the month that has passed since the parent listened to the recording and is no longer sending the child to kindergarten.

The parent has decided to take matters into her own hands and withdraw her child altogether. The preschool education rights of this child have been violated under the patronage of a flourishing system of sponsorship.