The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination established that the administration of the Chisinau Vocational School No. 1 during a year discriminated a minor girl on the grounds of disability, offering her a place in the dorm with difficulty, and then didn’t stop the discriminatory behavior of her roommates. The Council took legal action against the school as legal entity and against the lyceum principal as private individual. It asked the highest punishment in this case of discrimination, IPN reports.

Council member Lucia Gavrilita told a news conference that the lyceum’s administration didn’t stop the discrimination against the girl by her roommates, who forced her to wash their dishes and didn’t allow her to eat at the table. The administration didn’t want to adjust the institution’s infrastructure to the needs of the minor and the school program. The girl didn’t cope with some of the subjects and was expelled. The student’s case was presented in a negative light. Now the girl has to live with her relatives in another settlement as she is humiliated in her native settlement.

Jurist Doina Ioana Straisteanu, who is also a member of a Council, said they asked fining the school 9,000 lei and the principal 7,000 lei, which are the heaviest fines, and enrolling the girl to courses so that she is able to finish her studies. The Council recommends the Ministry of Education to penalize the lyceum’s administration and to promote policies for developing inclusive education.

The Council made public another case of discrimination. The mother of a four-year-old girl complained to the Council that the director of a kindergarten situated in Botanica district refused to admit the girl to the institution for the reason that she suffers from diabetes and needs a special diet. She went to another kindergarten and was again refused. The Council solved this case by mediation. The staff of the first kindergarten was counseled how to give firs aid and what diet the child needs and now the girl attends the kindergarten.

The Council recommended the Chisinau Division of Education, Youth and Sport to organize a psycho-pedagogical assistance service and to work out methodological instructions for the accommodation of children with disabilities and chronic diseases so that their right to studies is not infringed.

The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination is dealing with 25 cases of discrimination.