Volgograd Regional Prosecutor's Office: children's home teachers punished pupils by placing them in mental clinic

Violations of pupils' rights have been revealed in the state educational institution "Volgograd Children's Home": as punishment, children were placed in mental hospital for forced treatment. This was reported by the Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the Office, the principal of the children's home sent her pupils, whom she did not like, to the state public health institutions "Volgograd Regional Drug Treatment Hospital" and "Volgograd Regional Psychiatric Hospital No. 5", where they were subjected to compulsory treatment in the absence of legal grounds.

The grounds for children's hospitalization were ordinary misconducts, like escapes, etc.

"As the so-called 'educational measures' the managers of the children's home practiced placing children in the medical facility and use of psychotropic medication of the 'Aminazin' group without prescription. The above medical institutions diagnosed children without any objective data about diseases and violated the applicable standards on quality and duration of treatment," states the website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Volgograd Region.

It is reported that children were hospitalized in groups by 3-6 persons, accompanied by a nurse, without a legal representative and only on the request of the principal, in the absence of a commission conclusions of psychiatrists and the decision of the court.

Thus, one of the pupils "from the first day of stay at the drug treatment clinic was prescribed a number of neuroleptics, despite the fact that these drugs were contraindicated to him because of his existing liver disease."

The Prosecutor's Office established about 20 such facts, admitted in 2008-2009.

The materials of the prosecutor's check in relation to the principal of the children's home and chief physicians of the said medical institutions, where children were placed, have been sent to the Investigatory Department and the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for the Volgograd Region to decide on criminal prosecution. The top officials of the Administration of the Volgograd Region received presentations with demand of immediate actions to restore the legitimate rights and interests of the orphans, the "Interfax" reports.