School principal in Kherson region burned Ukrainian textbooks under occupation

The SBU served a notice of suspicion to the former deputy director of the lyceum, who headed the school under the occupiers. She actively supported the aggressor, replaced Ukrainian symbols and burned Ukrainian textbooks.

This is evidenced by the suspicion of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, during the temporary occupation of the village of Sokologirne, Henichesk district, Kherson region, a citizen of Ukraine, Tetiana Bytska, voluntarily took over the position of director of an educational institution established by the Russian occupation authorities.

This institution operates on the basis of the municipal Sokologorne Lyceum of the Genichesk City Council, but since the beginning of the occupation, it has been transferred to the educational standards of the Russian Federation and integrated into the system of the aggressor state.

Since September 2022, Tetiana Bitska has organized the activities of the so-called Sokolohirnenska school of the Genichesk municipal district.

As the school's director, she replaced Ukrainian symbols with Russian ones, removed Ukrainian textbooks from the library, including those on the history of Ukraine, and even burned them. She introduced Russian curricula with the official language of the aggressor country. She also hired teachers and technical staff who agreed to work under the occupation rules and paid them in Russian rubles.

Tetyana Bytska spoke in pro-Russian media, positively covering the activities of the occupation administration and the so-called reforms in the educational sphere in the temporarily occupied territory.

She organized festive events, such as "farewell to elementary school," according to Russian customs. The school's official page on the Vkontakte social network, which is banned in Ukraine, actively spreads pro-Russian propaganda.

According to law enforcement, her actions violated international humanitarian law, as well as the legislation of Ukraine, by assisting the occupation authorities in undermining national security, integrating Ukrainian education into the system of the aggressor state, and destroying Ukrainian cultural identity in the region.

The Security Service of Ukraine served her with a notice of suspicion under Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - aiding the aggressor state.

And in late June, another Kherson educator was notified of suspicion of collaboration. In the occupied college, she introduced Russian educational standards and taught history with propaganda content. She also organized classes in Russian and developed an educational program with elements of ideological influence.

Анна Бальчінос