In the Ternopil region, the director of a special school has been suspended following reports of child abuse.

This is mentioned in the directive of the Ternopil Regional Council. This was reported by the first deputy chairman of the Ternopil Regional Council, Vladimir Boleshuk.

The director has been suspended pending a service investigation until December 2. According to Boleshuk, the regional council also decided to hold the director accountable for disciplinary violations.

Additionally, the official stated that he has approached the Ternopil OVA with a proposal to allocate funds for meeting the basic needs of the institution and for conducting repairs in the dormitory buildings, replacing plumbing to improve the living conditions of the children, purchasing necessary materials to eliminate dampness in the shelter, and repairing the roof.

What was happening in this special school?

On November 7, law enforcement launched an investigation following reports that employees of a special educational institution in the Ternopil region were committing violence against minors.

• Improper fulfillment of professional duties regarding the protection of the life and health of minors, due to negligent treatment that caused significant harm to health;
• Illegal placement of a healthy person in a psychiatric institution;
• Sexual violence;
• Abuse of official position for personal gain, using official status against the interests of the service.

Subsequently, public activist and lawyer Inna Miroshnichenko disseminated photos from a monitoring visit to the Novoselska special school in the Ternopil region. She demonstrated the conditions in which children live there: in particular, the toilet doors do not lock, and the shower and bath are available only once a week.

The public figure also mentioned that for the children residing there, the shower and bath are accessible only once a week, with hot water provided for just two hours, from 8 PM to 10 PM.

“But the scariest part is not this. It’s what the children say. For bad behavior, they are sent to a psychiatric hospital. This is not recorded anywhere. If they behave poorly there, they are given injections that leave you feeling ‘like a vegetable.’ Psychotropic medications are prescribed, as if they are being given to children who have already left the institution. Later, they are likely given uncontrollably to others, because they have a pronounced calming effect,” the lawyer writes.

She also stated that there were two cases of sexual violence in the institution, and children were regularly told that they were “disabled, autistic, unwanted, stupid, sick.”