Parents hire private security guards to facilitate signing kids up for first grade

A group of parents wishing to sign their children up for first grade at a prestigious school in Petrozavodsk hired private security guards to prevent competitors from getting ahead of them in line.

The mother of a girl who was unable to sign up at school number 48 appealed to the city court with a demand that all the placements be annulled.

“Employees of a security company first allowed only those people who started lining up [virtually] on social networks onto the school’s premises, ignoring the ‘live line’ made up of parents who had come to the open house,” read the court documents.

The hearing is scheduled for March 14.

In Petrozavodsk, only seven schools gave parents the option of signing their children up for the 2017/2018 school year online. The rest of the institutions accepted applications for admission from a “live line” outside the school premises.