On April 3, Elena Gulina from Syktyvkar held a one-person picket in support of Nikita Tushkanov, a teacher from the town of Mikun who was dismissed from a local school for "immoral" posts on Instagram. Sever.Realii* reported this. On January 23, Tushkanov held a one-person picket in defense of liberty of speech, after which he was asked to resign.
“I am here because it is unfair to dismiss a person only for the fact that he has used his right to hold a one-person picket and take his civic stance. So I have taken it, too,” the media outlet quotes Elena Gulina. “It is okay to be afraid to tell the truth. Only a fool is not afraid to go to prison. But that won't do at all. In our country, people get imprisoned and tortured simply for telling the truth. I am surprised that teachers keep silent.”
Police officers approached Gulina and looked through her papers seven minutes after the picket began. Also, according to the activist, a woman who said she was from the head’s public reception office took a photo of her picketing.
“I cannot imagine how she has found it out, because the information about the time and place was only in a private chat,” said Elena Gulina.
Elena Gulina was toughly detained at a rally in Syktyvkar on January 31. The court fined her for 10 thousand rubles for participating in an unagreed action. She also faces a fine for participating in a rally on January 23.
The police issued a warning to the woman for posting leaflets with the image of a heart and a flashlight before February 14. The police failed to provide evidence that it was Gulina who posted the leaflets.
Nikita Tushkanov taught history and social studies at school No. 1 in the town of Mikun. On January 23, he held a one-person picket, but, according to him, to support liberty of speech, rather than Alexei Navalny. After that, officials of the Department of Education of the Ust-Vym District called an emergency meeting and, according to Tushkanov, persuaded him to resign.
In March, the Department of Education sent a report on Tushkanov with a request to take disciplinary action against him to a headmaster. The teacher's posts in social networks, which, according to the officials, violated the “code of behavior” of an educator, were the reason. After that, the teacher was dismissed "for immoral conduct". According to Nikita Tushkanov, he was accused of alcohol and suicide propaganda basing on photos taken when he did not work at school yet.
