Sochi officials refused to acknowledge their inaction on a complaint about the introduction of censorship in a kindergarten.

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A review of the administrative claim filed by Sochi teacher Elena Baranetskaya against officials of the city's Department of Education and Science has begun for refusing to hold the kindergarten director accountable for censoring parent chats.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," the conflict between parents and the administration of Kindergarten No. 121 in Sochi has been ongoing since the spring of 2025. The parents of the children have repeatedly demanded that a criminal case be opened for child abuse, but law enforcement agencies found no criminal offense in the actions of the teacher, who resigned voluntarily. In January, the Sochi administration told parents that psychologists had not identified a "negative emotional-psychological climate in the group," while ignoring the recording of the child abuse incident. In April, a court in Krasnodar found illegal the actions of Kuban Education Ministry officials who ignored a violation of parents' rights to freedom of speech and opinion at Sochi's Kindergarten No. 121, and ordered regional officials to correct the violations.

On May 22, the Central District Court of Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, began hearing an administrative claim filed by Elena Baranetskaya, a teacher at a rural school in Sochi and a mother of many children, against the city's Department of Education and Science and its head, Olga Medvedeva. The plaintiff is demanding that the department's responses and inaction against the management of Kindergarten No. 121 be declared illegal.

The Department of Education and Science does not fully recognize the administrative claim.

"Plaintiff Baranetskaya and a representative of the administrative defendant appeared at the new court hearing in Sochi with a power of attorney from Medvedeva, who stated that the Department of Education and Science does not fully recognize the administrative claim. The court ordered the officials to submit written, reasoned objections stating the reasons for not recognizing the claims," ​​a source in the Central District Court told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As a reminder, the standoff between Baranetskaya and the administration of MDOBU Kindergarten No. 121 in Sochi has been ongoing for over a year. The appeals to various authorities stemmed from a local regulatory act (LRA) "Regulations on the Ethics of Communication in Parent Chats," which the kindergarten's administration insistently demanded be signed. The mother was particularly outraged by paragraph 3.7 of this document, which effectively deprived parents of the right to openly discuss the institution's problems on messaging apps. "Ensure that discussions of issues that could negatively impact the reputation of the preschool educational institution (MDOBU) occur only in person among chat participants (parents/legal representatives of the students) and in the presence of a representative of the MDOBU administration," the act states.

Elena Baranetskaya emphasizes that this clause directly violates Article 29 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and prohibits censorship. According to the plaintiff, under this regulation, parents were required to "ignore any questions," which paved the way for kindergarten staff to evade responsibility for non-pedagogical misconduct against children.

All of these responses are formal in nature and are essentially formal replies, expressing persistent inaction and failure to take action.

Officials had previously limited themselves to formal replies to all inquiries on this matter from Baranetskaya and other parents. "All of these responses are formal in nature and are essentially formal replies, expressing persistent inaction and failure to take action... The Sochi Education Department ignored my requests and provided responses in which they saw nothing illegal in these actions," the lawsuit states, a copy of which is in the possession of the "Caucasian Knot."

The department's employees justified the actions of the kindergarten director. They claimed that the re-familiarization of parents with the document was prompted solely by "the situation that had developed in parent chats." Moreover, even after an April 2025 inspection by the Krasnodar Krai Ministry of Education uncovered violations and issued "verbal recommendations" to amend the regulations, the kindergarten's management ignored them, and the Sochi Education Department did not insist on compliance.

The illegality of the "Ethics Regulation" was officially confirmed only after the intervention of the Adler District Prosecutor's Office of Sochi, which issued protest No. Prdp-2-25 on August 11, 2025. Only under pressure from the supervisory authority was the controversial clause 3.7 removed from the document in late August 2025.

Despite the fact that the document was eventually brought into compliance with the law, Elena Baranetskaya intends to hold accountable the officials who covered for months for the kindergarten's management and ignored the infringement of the rights of children and families. In her lawsuit, she demands: "To declare the inaction and official responses of the Sochi Department of Education and Science (including responses signed by O.N. Medvedeva and through the State Services portal) illegal; to oblige the department to apply preventive measures against the head of Kindergarten No. 121, Natalya Lazarenko; and to oblige the department to eliminate in the future a formal approach to reviewing citizen complaints about violations in the institutions under its jurisdiction."

The next court hearing, at which the education department must justify its position, is scheduled for June 18, a court clerk reported.