Shouting, Ear-Pulling and Punishments: Scandal at a Private Kindergarten in České Budějovice

At a private kindergarten and elementary school on Okružní Street in České Budějovice, harsh child-rearing methods were reportedly used for years — ranging from shouting and ear-pulling to banning children from talking to their parents. Former staff members and parents have come forward about the situation, and police even investigated, though they ultimately found no criminal offense in the director's actions.

According to former employee Andrea, the director once dragged a boy with developmental delays by the ear all the way down the hallway to a spot where no one could see them. When the crying child later ran up to hug her, she herself was reprimanded for allowing herself to hug the children at all. Another former teacher, Barbora, who worked at the kindergarten for three months, recalls that the director would lock "disobedient" children alone in the washroom, where they would cry, and that she personally witnessed the director slap children on the bottom several times when she felt they were taking too long to get dressed.

Banned from Playing or Talking to Parents

Witnesses say even the children's free time was strictly regulated: playing with toys on the carpet was forbidden because of the "noise and mess," and instead children were handed worn-out catalogs and comic books, in which they were only allowed to draw. According to teachers, management effectively cut educators off from parents — ordinary staff were forbidden from speaking directly with mothers and fathers, with all communication required to go through the director, who would praise the children in front of their parents even though she might have been shouting at them just moments before.

Helena, the mother of one of the school's pupils, said her son requires a personal assistant for health reasons, so she was often near the school and personally heard the director loudly yelling at first- and second-graders in the hallways. When she raised the issue, the director promised to change, but the improvement lasted only a day or two. Helena's sons told her at home that the director had threatened to call the police on them and said that "if they were in the army, they would have been shot." Both boys eventually transferred to a different school.

Director Abruptly Retires

When journalists tried to get a comment from the director, Jaroslava P., she admitted over the phone that the topic was "sensitive" and promised a personal meeting after the end of the school year — but she never followed up, asking instead that questions be sent by email, which she then never answered. In August, a new director picked up calls to her old number, saying Jaroslava P. had retired and did not wish to be contacted. The new management insists her departure had been planned well in advance and that the scandal merely sped it up.

Nevertheless, according to the Czech School Inspectorate, a June inspection found the institution still has plenty of problems: the kindergarten lacks staff with proper teaching qualifications, the elementary school has constant teacher turnover, and the director herself (still Jaroslava P. at the time) was overburdened, having failed to delegate responsibilities while holding several positions at once. Still, the private institution — originally set up for the children of staff at the Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice — formally met the conditions for receiving state subsidies and was simply given a deadline to fix the shortcomings.

Police Find No Grounds for Criminal Charges

About a year ago, teacher and blogger Robert Čapek took an interest in the case after being approached by roughly twenty teachers and about as many unhappy parents. It emerged that complaints about pressure and absurd restrictions had followed Jaroslava P. since her previous job at a school in the nearby village of Dubné. Together with Helena, Čapek filed a police report alleging mistreatment of a minor and endangerment of a child's upbringing.

Police questioned some of the parents, former staff, and even a few children, but the case was closed a few weeks ago — investigators concluded that the director's conduct did not rise to the level of a criminal offense. Andrea, who had witnessed the mistreatment of a child, was never even called in for questioning. "If an adult is left traumatized by an environment like that, it's frightening to imagine what it's like for small children who spent years going there," she says.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz