The Krasnoyarsk City Council discussed the safety of children in schools and kindergartens. The topic was raised at a meeting of the standing commission on social policy. Representatives of the city administration and law enforcement agencies took part in the meeting.
I. o. The head of the city department of social development, Andrei Sigida, said that order in educational institutions is monitored by employees of private security companies; everywhere there are call buttons for the Russian Guard, video surveillance systems and voice alerts about danger. In addition, the city is repairing fences around the perimeter of schools and kindergartens. All institutions have developed regulations for the actions of staff, guards and children in the event of emergency situations associated with an attack. Algorithms are regularly tested in practice.
“Twice a year, in municipal educational institutions of the city, together with the Russian National Guard, we conduct all-Russian exercises to practice the actions of employees and security personnel in various emergency situations. In addition to federal exercises, we organize our training in kindergartens at least once every six months and in schools at least once every three months,” explained Andrei Sigida.
Video surveillance systems are constantly being modernized according to the recommendations of supervisory authorities. But, according to Andrei Sigida, the main problem is the qualifications of the private security company’s employees and the attitude of their management to work in schools and kindergartens.
“Several years ago, when the practice of cooperation with private security companies was just beginning, companies that participated in competitions (for the provision of security services – Ed.) reduced the contract price as much as possible. Naturally, they could not provide quality service for minimal money. Therefore, we have developed a checklist by which the head of an educational organization can check the compliance of the activities of private security companies at the site with certain requirements. Now, for each point of violation, companies receive claims and penalties. If there are too many such claims, we can terminate the contract with the private security company. Together with the Russian National Guard, we also conduct inspections of the work of companies in educational organizations. As a result of this activity, three legal entities’ licenses for security activities were even suspended,” said Andrei Sigida.
The city is gradually increasing the cost of contracts that include payment for the work of security guards, at the moment it is 318 rubles per hour. This should attract qualified personnel. But the mayor’s office notes that this is not enough to hire competent, well-trained specialists.
During the discussion of the issue, the Chairman of the City Council Natalia Firyulina noted that we should not limit ourselves only to the protection of buildings and the surrounding area.
“We discussed the protection of schools and kindergartens from external threats, but we also need to talk about internal security. How involved are children in school and extracurricular activities? Are they receiving enough attention? Who monitors their psychological state? If a school has one psychologist for one and a half thousand students, then this is absolutely not enough. And this, in my opinion, is the key problem,” shared Natalia Firyulina.
Deputy Olga Kurygina, who is the director of Krasnoyarsk secondary school 154, told her colleagues about the organization of security in a particular educational institution.
“Security is a very sensitive issue. There are more than 2 thousand students in our school. There are security guards and all the necessary security equipment is working. But in the morning, a thousand children enter the building in 15 minutes! In addition to the security guard, they are met by administrators on duty and teachers. However, we cannot inspect the backpacks, since we do not have the right to do so. The second issue that Natalia Vyacheslavovna spoke about was the involvement of children in events. Naturally, if a child is busy and has friends, he will not end up in a bad situation. We are trying to resolve this issue as well. We have drawn up a plan with a large number of interesting events, we cooperate with the “Movement of the First” (Russian youth organization. – Ed.), we have educational advisers and psychologists, although there is an acute shortage of the latter – in our school there are three psychologists for two thousand children. Of course, education at school is very important. But the family in this sense is the main institution,” commented Olga Kurygina.
Deputies asked Andrei Sigida about the conclusions that were drawn after the attack on schoolchildren by one of the students of school No. 153. But it is too early to draw final conclusions, since investigators are working at the school.
“I will say that in material and technical terms the school is very well equipped. There are questions for the security company, and the contracts with it have already been terminated. We are now conducting our own verification of the compliance of the security guards’ activities with our requirements. Soon it will end, we will get conclusions and we will be able to draw conclusions. Let me just say that immediately after the incident I started working at school center for psychological, pedagogical, medical and social assistance “Ego” — nine professional psychologists. They conduct conversations with students and parents,” explained Andrei Sigida.
Separately, the commission also discussed the situation with the security systems of institutions in the territories that were annexed to Krasnoyarsk as a result of municipal reform. Deputies asked the mayor's office for detailed information about how educational, cultural, youth policy and social protection organizations are equipped. Following the meeting, the people’s representatives proposed that the relevant departments of the administration intensify explanatory work with students, parents and employees of municipal institutions on actions in emergency situations, as well as strengthen control over security companies with which contracts are concluded, and concentrate efforts to involve children and adolescents in sports and patriotic events.
“Deputies pay special attention to security issues in Krasnoyarsk municipal institutions. Coincidentally, our meeting, which we had planned last year, took place after such a high-profile incident at school No. 153. Therefore, even those deputies who do not work on the standing commission on social policy came to the meeting. This suggests that it is impossible to be indifferent to this topic. We heard that systematic work is being carried out in the city, funds are being allocated from the budget. But there is still a lot to improve. For example, there is a proposal to increase the amount of fines for security companies that violate contract requirements, so that they have the motivation to work better,” summed up commission chairwoman Oksana Larionova.
