Vocational School No. 2 in Dnipropetrovsk is where orphans, children who are legally separated from their parents, and handicapped children, many of whom suffer from mental disorders, go to school. Information about the wave of suicides at the school was made public almost by accident. When journalists reported the news, it caused a stir in local government bodies. The details are still being kept under lock and key because the Dnipropetrovsk prosecutor’s office, which learned about this extraordinary event only recently, has confined itself to issuing general statements and comments. Meanwhile, the pupils of Vocational School No. 2 have already been sent away to summer camps - perhaps to avert new cases of suicide.
According to unofficial sources, the story began on May 22, 2007, when an 18-year-old youth named Petro, who had lost a large amount of money playing slot machines, hanged himself in his relatives’ house in Verkhniodniprovske. He had tried unsuccessfully to raise some money and pay off his debts, and when he decided on suicide, he left a note filled with despair.
His girlfriend, who also attends this school, also tried to commit suicide. During the post-funeral dinner the sister of the deceased made some accusations against the girl, who later slashed her veins. Luckily, doctors managed to save the 18-year-old Liudmyla. The next day a friend of the deceased, a boy named Serhii, hanged himself near the school dormitory. Word has it that he explained in his suicide note that he was doing this out of remorse and lifelong despondency. Two days later, on May 27, 17-year-old Oleksandr jumped out the dormitory window, and the ambulance rushed him to the Mechnikov Regional Hospital. The dormitory is rife with rumors that the youth was in a state of inebriation and apparently survived the fall from the fifth floor only because he landed on a tree.
Teachers at the school say they are not to blame for these tragic events. Even though they earn a meager 500-hryvnia monthly salary, they are still doing their best to take proper care of the children. They note that more than half of the pupils come from problem families and orphanages; there are also some physically and mentally handicapped teenagers. It is difficult to control them - at times impossible.
Meanwhile, the law-enforcement agencies that conducted a comprehensive investigation of this educational institution arrived at certain conclusions within a few days. Oleksandr Cherednyk, chief investigator at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Prosecution Service, told a press conference that the staff of Vocational School No. 2 “paid insufficient attention to the social development of pupils and failed to create a proper psychological climate for them.” According to the prosecutors, this educational institution employed one psychologist, instead of two. On top of it, the psychologist in question had technical training and was a power-plant maintenance specialist by profession. It was also revealed that, through the fault of local bureaucrats, no guardians have been assigned to 100 pupils who need guardianship and care. While orphaned children badly need material assistance, the financial authorities of Dnipropetrovsk’s Babushkinsky district failed to provide a lump sum of UAH 100,000 for the purchase of clothing and footwear. The owners of eleven businesses where the teenagers worked were in no hurry to pay them their wages, and one of the enterprises even “forgot” to enter a required clause into the contract. The prosecutors think that this situation also sparked feelings of despair among the pupils, which led them to commit suicide.
Following the investigation, the prosecution service of Dnipropetrovsk’s Chervonogvardiiske district instituted criminal proceedings against the school staff for miscarriage of duty and failure to protect the life and health of minors. According to Cherednyk, his subordinates have already interrogated witnesses and are now studying the victims’ personal files and the school’s routine documentation, as well as identifying the persons implicated in the crime and the circumstances leading up to it. The prosecutors also urged the chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration to dismiss the regional education chief and one of his deputies (both of whom were appointed at the peak of the Orange Revolution) for failure to dereliction of duty. The two officials are demanding that the school principal and the chief of the regional vocational schools resource center also be fired.
School principal Viktor Kryvozub says the main problem is that educational institutions like his are underfunded by the state. “We are shouldering a heavy burden because we must have not only psychologists but also psychotherapists. Instead, we have just one paramedic.” Kryvozub has been principal for 30 years, and nearly everyone describes him as a hardworking professional. Still, many share the bitterness of his words, noting that in the present-day conditions of the vocational education system he and his colleagues “are banging their heads against a brick wall.”
COMMENTARY
Larysa KRIACHKO , deputy director, Vocational Education Department, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine:
“There are 930 state-run vocational institutions in Ukraine that employ 49,000 teachers, about 86 percent of the required number. Most of the problems crop up with industrial training instructors over low wages. Add to this the aging staff and the need to upgrade their scientific and technological skills. The Minister of Education and Science, Stanislav Nikolaienko, raised this question at a recent cabinet meeting. There are 429 practical psychologists, 128 social educators, and 697 method advisors for all these institutions. These services are indispensable for the schools to function properly. As for what happened in Dnipropetrovsk, we instructed the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Education Department to conduct an internal investigation. Working on the scene now are experts from our department, the state inspection, the psychological service, and other agencies. This incident needs to be studied carefully. So it is too early to reach any conclusions. All we can say now is that it is very dangerous to allow such high a concentration of pupils in one educational institution. This school had 860 students, including about 250 orphans and 174 handicapped persons. In other words, half the students had difficult lives and characters. This imposed a heavy psychological burden on the entire educational institution, i.e., on both teachers and pupils. Our task now is to draw proper conclusions and prevent a ‘chain reaction’ in other educational (not just vocational) institutions because suicide is very widespread among Ukrainian teenagers and young people.”
The State Social Service told The Day that the main problems of orphaned children who attend any kind of schools are an inability to communicate and aloofness. They attend classes sporadically because they know that nobody has the right to expel them.






