Villager from Ikha, Dagestan, claims his son was beaten at boarding school

Abdulmuslim Aliev, a deaf-mute resident of the village of Ikha, Kazbek District of Dagestan, has lodged an application to the police that his son, a 6th form pupil, was beaten by a teacher of the Bavtugai boarding school. The school principal Nutsalkhan Akhmedov denies any guilt of his subordinate.

A message about the incident arrived to the SMS-service of the "Caucasian Knot".

Abdulmuslim Aliev wrote to the "Caucasian Knot" that on January 12, 2011, his son Islam was beaten by Patimat Mirzoeva, a teacher of the Bavtugai boarding school. On the following day, according to his father, the boy ran away from school and reached home by hitch-hiking and on foot.

The Alievs live in a small village of Ikha, Kazbek District, where there is no school; thus, Islam Aliev was sent to the Bavtugai boarding school.

Since then, Islam does not attend school. According to his father, it was not the first case of manhandling. "Earlier, they had also beaten my son; and we warned Patimat Mirzoeva not to touch him, otherwise we'd turn to the police. However, our warnings had no effect," said Abdulmuslim Aliev.

Then, as he reported, on January 14 he and his son went to the Kizilyurt District Police Division, "where the police captain named Murad (I don't remember his surname) received us and wrote an application at my request." Then, according to his story, the red-tape began. The police reported that there were no witnesses of the beating; while Islam Aliev maintains that his teacher Patimat Mirzoeva punched him on his head in the presence of classmates when they were in the canteen.

"We demanded that Mirzoeva should be sacked; however, the principal of the Bavtugai boarding school Nutsalkhan Akhmedov started blanching the teacher and putting pressure on us. He said that Mirzoeva had gone by herself. Then, he promised, if we want, to help to send our son into the cadet corps. But it all turned out to be untrue. Patimat Mirzoeva is still working there, and my son is afraid of her and can't learn there," said the father.

Intizar Mumataeva, Children's Ombudsperson in the Republic of Dagestan, said that the boy himself called her and said that the teacher hit him, and he left the school.

The Children's Ombudsperson said that the incident had really taken place. "That is why I said that urgent measures should be taken to the teacher, and the Ministry of Education responded that they would promptly put things into order," Ms Mumataeva has assured.

According to her story, the only way out of this situation may be a personal "confrontation" of all the parties in the conflict.

Nutsalkhan Akhmedov, principal of the Bavtugai boarding school, denies the guilt of his employee.

"Nobody had beaten him; he ran away from school, and, being afraid of his father, he said that he had been beaten. This boy does not want to learn, he had to be already in form 9, while he is still in form 6. He said at home that he had been beaten by the teacher, and he didn't want... We found out that he has an uncle, his father's brother, a former militiaman; and we went to him and said: let this boy Islam come to us, and we will investigate, punish and expel her if she was guilty; however, the uncle said that it was not the case; the boy just didn't want to learn. I still keep his application," said Akhmedov.

The teacher Patimat Mirzoeva was unavailable for comments.