Astrakhan Mayor fires principal Gogoleva

Nadezhda Gogoleva, Director of School No. 74 and a member of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) was dismissed today in Astrakhan without any explanations.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ms Gogoleva is a member of the territorial election commission and of the Party "Spravedlivaya Rossiya"; she had earlier accused the bosses of the City Committee for Education and Sciences of an attempt to sack her on trumped-up reasons. The MPs of the City Duma had initiated an audit of her school; and Oleg Shein, a Deputy of the Russian State Duma, was forced to speak in defence of Gogoleva.

Today, Nadezhda Gogoleva was summoned to the Committee for Education and Sciences of the Astrakhan Mayor.

"I'm on my sick leave; however, I still came to the Committee. I was immediately shown my work record book with an entry of September 22 saying that I was dismissed by Mayor's order under Article 278, Part 2, of the Labour Code. I was also told that my lay-off pay had been sent to my bank account. Apart from the staff of the personnel department, Inessa Gorina, deputy head of the committee for legal and cadre support, spoke to me," Nadezhda Gogoleva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, within the last two years, she was sacked for the third time; however, for 9 years of her work she had not a single disciplinary reprimand.

"I'm sure that the reason is my political views and my work in the territorial election commission. These are real political repressions," said Nadezhda Gogoleva.

However, the Committee for Education and Sciences of the Astrakhan Mayoralty did not confirm the fact of Gogoleva's dismissal.

"I've never heard of her dismissal," the above Inessa Gorina said on the phone to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and refrained from further comments.

The official position of Suriya Magerramova, Chair of the Committee for Education and Sciences, is also unknown.

Nadezhda Gogoleva is going to challenge the decision of the Mayor of Astrakhan Sergey Bozhenov of her dismissal in the court. She expressed confidence that she would once again win the case.

In their turn, parents of pupils of her school the school want to hold an action in support of Nadezhda Gogoleva.

"Also, we're preparing an open letter to Russian President with a demand to stop persecution and humiliation of our honoured teacher," said one of the fathers who preferred to remain anonymous.

Let us remind you that on November 30, 2010, at School No. 74 of Astrakhan, some unidentified person sprayed a pepper gas container. As a result, 13 pupils were taken to the toxicology department of the Regional Alexander-Mary Hospital; three more victims refused from hospitalization. The school principal believes that those children suffered from a provocation arranged by her political opponents.