Ombudsman Addresses Targeting of Metsavan School Teacher Over Mental Health Issues

It is absolutely unacceptable to target individuals based on their disability, including mental health issues. This statement was made by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Anahit Manasyan, in response to the situation surrounding a history teacher at Metsavan School.

The Defender emphasizes the need for serious actions to eliminate any manifestation of discrimination against individuals with mental health issues. "To achieve this goal, urgent measures must be taken to dismantle stereotypes and prejudices regarding mental health and to exclude speech that contains discrimination. In this context, the Defender strongly condemns the targeting of the history teacher from the Metsavan village secondary school in the Aragatsotn region, using such language and preparing and distributing related materials," the statement reads.

Such behavior reinforces deep-rooted stereotypes against persons with disabilities, which is intolerable. At the same time, the Human Rights Defender finds the targeting of children participating in the mentioned incident, along with the preparation and dissemination of materials that significantly violate both domestic and international standards for the protection of personal data, unacceptable and condemnable.

The Defender urges not to distribute the aforementioned materials and calls on competent authorities to take necessary measures to ensure these rights.

On May 13, a video circulated on social media in which the acting director of the school, certain parents, and students accused the history teacher of not teaching, insulting everyone, and being in an inadequate state. The history teacher, in turn, claimed that everyone was lying and had one goal: to remove her from the school. The following day, the Ministry of Education and Science responded, stating that unacceptable behavior had been displayed towards the teacher; it was decided to dismiss the acting director and appoint a new acting director.

Days later, new information began to circulate in the media regarding the history teacher, indicating that she has been registered at the Psychiatric Cabinet of the Martuni Medical Center in the Armavir region since 2017, diagnosed with chronic delusional disorder.