Serafima Saprykina. Photo: personal page on Facebook
Everything lies on the calendar
Initially, both sides agreed on one thing: the root cause of the conflict was Alexander Vvedensky's poem «I'm sorry that I'm not an animal.» He was chosen for an extracurricular lesson by the teacher-organizer of the 168th gymnasium, Serafima Saprykina, who offered the tenth graders a flash mob to read this poem line by line. The director of the gymnasium, Svetlana Lebedeva, in the media comments, rated him as “sad” (and in a conversation with Saprykina, according to her version, she said: “What a vile name: it’s a pity, you know, that he is not a beast”).
< p> The head of the city committee on education, Natalia Putilovskaya, saw “suicidal themes” in the poem (since “the word “death” is used more than once”). Vice Governor Irina Potekhina came to the conclusion that “the interests of children were violated” — noting that certain works “are directly contraindicated for the time being” for them. Officials announced that they had received complaints from parents and students — the director was obliged to respond, so she called the teacher for a conversation. But she did it «in a very correct form.» And the director, contrary to Saprykina's assertions, did not say anything about poets as «enemies of the people» and «accomplices of the Nazis.» width: 100%; height: auto; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 700px;» />