The Tomsk Region Department of Education commented on the ban on clothing with foreign inscriptions in schools.
The department believes that under the guise of fashion, teenagers may be receiving "alien and dangerous messages," the content of which neither children nor parents can often accurately verify due to their lack of language skills. The department's response to a journalistic inquiry was published by the portal "VTomske."
“Today, the fragile minds of children and adolescents are under serious informational pressure,” says the letter signed by the head of the department. Yuri Kalinyuk"By succumbing to such influence, a child may, without realizing it, wear something with an extremist print or a destructive slogan."
The agency emphasized that it was not a campaign against foreign languages. Officials insisted they had developed a "set of measures" against radicalization among children and young people to draw the attention of schools, parents, and the public to "hidden threats."
"Wow, they continue to insist on their madness. I can't imagine what could infuriate children and teenagers more than endless, stupid bans. But, overall, let them continue in the same spirit. An excellent vaccination against authoritarianism for the younger generation of Russians," a former member of parliament and former head of Navalny's Tomsk headquarters responded to the Education Department's statement. Ksenia Fadeeva.
Tomsk residents themselves did not remain silent: "What could have a more serious impact on a child's life than what the Russian government is doing?" "What struck me most was how feeble-minded they think we are! And children even more so." "If they're supposedly 'concerned about schoolchildren,' then what's the problem with just telling the parents if there really is illegal symbols on clothing?"
Earlier, a teacher from Tomsk shared information with NeMoskva that the Department of Education had sent a directive to schools in the Tomsk region, instructing them to revise their internal regulations and formally prohibit students from wearing clothing with inscriptions in foreign languages.
After news of the order spread widely across federal Telegram channels, the head of the education department of one of the Tomsk region's mayoral offices sent a new order to school principals via chats: "to suspend work on the ban until further notice." He claimed this was happening amid an "unhealthy wave on social media that distorts the meaning of the order."
