The former director of the League of Schools, Sergei Bebchuk, filed a lawsuit against Daniil Turovsky, a special correspondent for the Meduza online publication. In 2017, the journalist published an investigation into the sexual harassment of the head of an educational institution towards female students. However, these facts have not been confirmed.
According to the open data of the Moscow City Court, on May 18, 2018, the lawsuit was filed with the Chertanovsky District Court - at the place of residence of the journalist.
The ex-principal of the school, Sergei Bebchuk, explained to RT that the lawsuit he filed concerns the protection of honor and business reputation.
As RT found out, Bebchuk decided to go to court with a lawsuit after the Investigative Committee of Moscow repeatedly refused to initiate a criminal case against him for sexual harassment.
Check revealed distortions
The pre-investigation check began after the publication in January 2017 by Meduza of an investigation into the systematic sexual harassment of the League of Schools leadership towards female students. In the report, the journalist colorfully described alleged cases of harassment by the director of the educational institution, Sergei Bebchuk and his deputy, Nikolai Izyumov, to schoolgirls, as well as their sexual contacts with pupils.
“During the verification of a crime report posted on the Internet information and telecommunications network, about possible indecent acts against students of the GBOU secondary school No. 1199 League of Schools, explanations were received from former students and teaching staff of the educational institution,” RT was told in the press service of the Moscow Investigative Committee . - A child psychologist was also interviewed, who explained that in the "League of Schools" there was an atmosphere of a close personal community, there were blurred boundaries between teachers and children. Bebchuk and Izyumov were paternal figures. The "League of Schools" was thus perceived by many students as a second family. In addition, the explanations of a number of students and teachers of SBEI secondary school No. 1199 “League of Schools”, who were eyewitnesses and participants in various school events described by the applicants, revealed a number of inconsistencies with the position of the applicants.”
As clarified in the UK, one of the former pupils of the "League of Schools" confessed during interrogation to distorting information about teachers.
“One of the interviewed former students, who acted as a victim in the publication of an article in the media, explained that at the time of communication with journalists she did not give a proper assessment of her words. Subsequently, after the publication of the article, she realized that when giving an interview, being emotionally agitated, she reported distorted information. During the verification, sufficient data indicating the presence of a crime event were not obtained during the production. All the explanations of the persons point to various events that do not confirm each other, more than half of the respondents categorically deny the fact of illegal actions against the students of the League of Schools,” the department said.
Loud accusations
Meanwhile, as follows from the publication of the Meduza publication, the facts of harassment were revealed during an internal investigation initiated by the head of the theater studio at the school, Irina Dmitrieva.
According to her, she began to understand the situation after she heard from one of her students about Bebchuk's harassment. Soon, Dmitrieva learned from acquaintances that Bebchuk had been in a sexual relationship with his student Vera Volyak for several years. A graduate of the "League" said that at the age of fourteen she had sex with Bebchuk, and also three of them - together with his wife Anastasia Loseva, who worked at the school as an art history teacher.
Dmitrieva, according to her, was able to establish that the cases of harassment were systematic and continued for more than 20 years. Those involved in the investigation said that the very approach to the educational process at the school was "imprisoned" so that teachers could harass and seduce students with impunity.
The publication caused a powerful public outcry and attracted the attention of the federal media. The Investigative Committee of Russia announced the start of a pre-investigation check of the facts presented in the material.
Bebchuk and Izyumov denied all accusations against them. In addition, dozens of graduates, their parents, and teachers stood up for the leaders of the League of Schools. They stated that there were no and could not be any depraved actions on the part of the school administration.
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Teachers of the "League of Schools" made a collective letter in support of the former leaders.
“For us, who worked in the League of Schools and knew her life well from the inside, who taught, among other things, the “victims” of our colleagues, it was very difficult to combine everything that was said in the wake of the article about the founders of the school and about the school itself, with the fact what we saw with our own eyes, as well as with the analysis of facts and elementary logic. A considerable number of former students of the "League" had the same feeling. But even regardless of whether we were ready to believe in the accusations against our colleagues or not, we were sure of the blatant inadmissibility of the very fact of a national-scale scandal unfolding on the basis of a mere publication in the network media. Before any legal proceedings, without trial or investigation, two people were, in fact, declared criminals,” wrote teachers.
League graduates, in turn, recorded a video in support of Bebchuk and Izyumov with similar content.
“They are trying to present the school as a closed community in which moral norms were blurred and it was easy to cross the line of what is permitted,” explained one of the graduates of the "League" Anastasia Khodakovskaya. “In fact, everyone who wanted to take part in school life: parents, friends, acquaintances, applicants, and Sergey Alexandrovich and Nikolai Mikhailovich welcomed this in every possible way.”
At numerous press conferences, the students of the "League" assured that all the children were always in sight and would have known about harassment, if they had taken place. Graduates claimed that almost all the facts that the victims told were distorted or fictional, and one of the main accusers wrote a letter to Izyumov, in which she confessed to a psychiatric diagnosis.
The scandal was caused not only by the story itself, but also by the fact that the Meduza material did not mention a possible conflict of interests between Bebchuk and Piotr Volyak, Vera Volyak's older brother, who helped in the investigation.
It turned out that until November 2015, Bebchuk was listed as a co-owner of Coddan Technologies, and Volyak, since November 2014, served as the CEO of this company. Later, Volyak stated that when he came to the company, he did not know anything about harassment at the school where his sister studied. “I joined the investigation team in January 2015, when all the main facts had already been collected by Irina Dmitrieva,” he said.
Turovsky himself explained that the connection between Bebchuk and Volyak had nothing to do with the topic of the investigation.
“As for the internal discussion of the possible compromise of our investigation, then I have two considerations,” he commented on the situation to the media. - Firstly, I generally try not to read comments on Facebook, because otherwise you can go crazy. And secondly, the story related to the joint business of Bebchuk and the brother of one of the victims, in fact, has nothing to do with the text of the investigation. It does not change the fact that 20 students spoke frankly about what happened to them.”
Upon publication in mid-January 2017, the Moscow Investigative Committee began a pre-investigation check. In June of the same year, after interrogations of the defendants in the investigation, teachers, other students and graduates of the school, the investigation did not initiate a criminal case without receiving confirmation of the facts presented. The prosecutors, according to the investigation, did not provide evidence that what was said in the article took place.
The Investigative Committee of Russia canceled the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case. As explained then in the department, based on the results of the check in the central office of the Investigative Committee, the decision was canceled due to the incompleteness of the investigative actions carried out and an additional check was appointed, which ended in the spring of 2018 with the same result. What kind of additional investigative actions were carried out during the re-inspection, the press service of the Moscow Investigative Committee did not explain to RT.
“The most reasonable comment is a letter from teachers,” Bebchuk told RT. - These are more than 20 people who have worked with me from 5 to 25 years. The letter was signed by 90% of the teachers. Collective writing is not a genre for everyone. There are those who did not sign, but went to the TFR and testified in my defense.”
Bebchuk did not elaborate on the details of the lawsuit against the Meduza journalist. It was not possible to contact Daniil Turovsky at the time of publication of the RT material. Nikolai Izyumov did not answer RT's questions. Irina Dmitrieva also did not answer RT's questions.
Pyotr Volyak told RT that after the publication of the investigation, since January last year, he stopped following the development of the situation.
Another League graduate, who asked not to be named, told RT that the initiators of the investigation did not intend to continue trying to initiate a criminal case.
A big scandal, in the center of which was a lyceum for gifted children, flares up in Moscow. The director and his deputy are suspected of sexual harassment. As it turned out, the “League of Schools”, as the educational institution was called, practiced very dubious pedagogical methods. The lyceum has been closed for more than a year, but the facts were revealed only now, when some of the former students found the strength to tell what really happened there.
Quiet courtyard in the south of Moscow. For 20 years, an unusual, chamber school for gifted children has been working here - they accepted from the 7th grade, enrolling only 15 people a year. The only thing that reminds of the scandalous school 1199 is the sign "League of Schools", as the creators called their institution. After a recent scandal, it was closed. Now there is a kindergarten here.
In 2015, the first accusations were made against the director of the school, Sergei Bebchuk, and his deputy, Nikolai Izyumov. A certain document in which graduates of different years described sexual harassment from “wet kisses to intimacy”, this is a quote from the media, presented to the school management and forced to sign. They promised not to work with children in exchange for silence.
“By signing this paper, I just did it as a formality, because it was such a shock, such pressure. There were people in front of me, here they are, former friends, here they are, wonderful, wonderful, and suddenly - once, and they put me in front of such a fact, ”says the deputy director of GBOU 1199 “League of Schools” in 1994-2014. Nikolay Izyumov.
The deputy director, unlike Sergei Bebchuk, communicates with journalists. Houses. Now waiting for a call from the Investigative Committee.
“Currently, a complex of verification measures is being carried out aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the incident. As part of the inspection, the investigation will give a legal assessment of the actions of teachers and the leadership of the educational institution. Based on the results of the check, a procedural decision will be made, ”said Yulia Ivanova, senior assistant to the head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Moscow.
Among the initiators of the scandal is the former teacher of the "League of Schools" Irina Dmitrieva. She led a theater group. On amateur footage of a school production. In the frame is the student Tatyana, who was the first to tell Dmitrieva about "non-standard pedagogical methods."
“The distance that he reduced to a minimum in relations with girls, she was within the framework of his relationship, as it were, such a love, sincere, open, and he did not understand, he did not see the boundaries here, he did not see the difference between a human relationship and some then such sexual manifestations in their address, ”said the former teacher of the theater workshop GBOU 1199 “League of Schools” in 2000-2015. Irina Dmitrieva.
In the press, Tatyana describes a specific case: allegedly in 2014, she, a ninth grader, was offered by Sergei Bebchuk to come to his dacha. Pull up algebra. And for some reason it had to be done in the bath.
“I was told about this by the children who were there with him. All this is presented in such a way that he took the girls to Bobrovo, took them to the bathhouse and worked there. In fact, you need to understand that there have always been a lot of different people there, ”comments Nikolay Izyumov.
Another graduate, Vera Volyak, already an adult 37-year-old woman, told the following in a telephone interview with Channel One: “On a personal level, a teacher cannot cross a certain line. But for them, this line did not exist. Not for everyone it was full sexual contact. For some, it was, maybe, someone was pressed a little in the corridor, someone was stroked a little, somehow not right. There is a line that cannot be crossed."
“Intimate space is a thing that I have never invaded,” said Nikolai Izyumov.
Nikolai Izyumov himself tells about warm relations at school: the team was small, everyone was friends. But by reducing the distance “teacher-student” in this way, what did the teachers achieve? This is one of the public lectures of the former director Sergei Bebchuk, which today sounds especially cynical:
“In those schools where, say, the teacher is given more freedom in this area, in the field of choosing textbooks, programs, methods, in those schools, of course, the teacher feels better,” Sergei Bebchuk says.
Today it was not possible to hear his position. Sergei Bebchuk does not get in touch with journalists. The sign that survived after the closure of the school was dismantled in the morning. Under the squeal of the grinder, the last thing that reminded of the "League of Schools" disappeared.
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A sex scandal at the League of Schools, a prestigious educational institution for gifted children, is overgrown with new details. The teachers themselves, who allegedly raped their pupils, deny their guilt. They argue that the numerous stories of the victims have nothing to do with reality. Recently, video messages of girls appeared on the Web, accusing director Sergei Bebchuk and his deputy Nikolai Izyumov of harassment. These videos, dated from different years, were placed in the media with the consent of their authors.
The first video that surfaced after the sex scandal is dated 2014, it was recorded by Tatyana Karsten. The girl told about what happened to her in the 9th grade during the May holidays. According to Tatyana, students of the League of Schools often went to the principal's dacha. Sergei Bebchuk and his wife Anastasia Loseva, who taught art history, insisted that the girl go out of town.
Karsten said that the director's dacha did not have a bathroom. Therefore, schoolchildren went to wash in the bath. At that time, it so happened that at some point Tatyana was left alone. Sergei Alexandrovich advised her to work out in the bath. But the schoolgirl did not succeed well, and Bebchuk suggested that the naked pupil be treated with a broom. Then, according to Karsten, the man began to molest her. Tatyana was frightened and did not know what to do. She wanted to tell the headmaster's wife what had happened, but she couldn't. Karsten says that it was unpleasant for her to think that what happened could hurt a woman. In the end, she convinced herself that this was nothing to worry about, since men fall in love with girls. The ninth grader was also afraid that someone might get hurt and the school would be closed.
“He sat down on the bench next to me and hugged me. He said that I am a very smart and beautiful girl. That he has been in love with me for a long time. I didn’t expect this to happen so much that, probably, from shock, from fear, from everything together, I sat and didn’t know what to do ... He asked me: “Maybe I’m doing a bad thing that I’m pestering you?” I said I don't know. We stood at the door, then he hugged me, kissed my forehead, cheeks, hair, I don't know. He said how good I am, how he loves me. I was 17 years old at that moment, which is probably important to mention, ”Tatiana said.
Another appeal that appeared on the Web belongs to Vera Volyak. The first time she wrote it down in 2014, but after the journalists conducted an investigation, the girl invited them to answer the questions again.
According to Volyak, Bebchuk forced her to have sex with him. The first time it happened was when the schoolgirl was 14 years old. “You can’t say that it was, as you call it, petting or caressing, something like that, kissing or touching, no, it was full sex,” she said. Vera also claims that the director could arrange orgies, and his wife was aware of what was happening. Moreover, Loseva herself was a member of a group intimate relationship.
Volyak also said that many victims did not want to advertise what happened to them. When they graduated from high school, they didn't think about it. Vera said that she herself tried to forget about everything. She didn't think it could happen to other students.
In addition, Volyak spoke frankly about what Izyumov allegedly did to his pupils. Usually, the deputy director allegedly preferred to hug schoolgirls, but once he undressed in the presence of Vera and was ready to cross the line. But that did not happen.
“I saw now his answers in an interview, and he says, like - what is it, I stroked someone there? If you have a girl sitting on your lap, and you have, how to say, an erection, and you stroke her breasts, in my opinion, this is very far from shaking hands. He just closed the door - you go into his office, he closes the door and then, what's there, caresses you, presses you. I'm not saying I had sex with him. There was no full sex, ”the girl claims.
Vera told a Meduza correspondent that the director and his deputy allegedly emotionally persuaded the pupils to have intimate relationships. For a long time she did not dare to talk about it, but she overcame herself.
In turn, the alleged "rapists" continue to deny the allegations. Recently, the deputy director published an appeal to the public, in which he shared his version of what was happening. Izyumov claims that he was not involved in cases of violence, and the news about this seriously undermined his health. According to a former employee of the scandalous school, he has not stopped getting sick since 2015.
“I call all accusations slander. This is a story about a group of very good people with whom we have been in very good relations all the years, we were friends with many, we happily met at the evenings of the reunion of graduates, ”the man said.
Izyumov assured that he has a lot of joint photos with graduates and postcards from former students. The ex-head teacher of the "League of Schools" drew attention to the fact that many teachers of the now closed educational institution supported him.
“Not a single girl of the last year of study in any class could accuse me of harassment, because this did not happen - once, because these girls do not need such accusations - twice. And who needs them? That's right, through the years aunties. Because accusations of pedophilia through the years, as you know, is always a desire for revenge. For what? This is a difficult conversation. Everyone has their own reasons,” he says.
The man also said that many are trying to help him. “Now I receive many more calls, letters and messages from people who support and speak kind words than accusations from outsiders,” he said. Izyumov claims that the investigation published in the media does not provide all the details of what happened. According to him, some graduates themselves provoked representatives of the opposite sex. “You can have different attitudes towards the methods of Sergei Alexandrovich, but he didn’t seduce her [one of the alleged victims] and didn’t divide her. He just showed her what could be. But she didn’t forgive, ”Izyumov said.
Next news
Alumni of the League of Schools, who do not agree with the allegations of sexual harassment by their director Sergei Bebchuk and his deputy Nikolai Izyumov, told the 360 TV channel their version of events.
Scary details
Two former students Tatyana Karsten and Vera Volyak made video messages in which they told how teachers molested them. The students went to the village where Bebchuk's house is located. Karsten recalled the incident in the bathhouse, when the teacher floated her naked, then kissed her and confessed his love to her.
Volyak shared that, as a 14-year-old, she had an intimate relationship with the director and once participated in group sex with him and his wife Anastasia Loseva.
According to the League of Schools 2015 graduates, everything that Karsten and Volyak told is not true, they called the accusations slander.
Bath trips
“Everything happened a little differently than Tanya describes. You live there for two weeks, sometimes you have to wash, this is logical. Therefore, at some point, Sergei Alexandrovich warmed up the bath. Girls came separately, in towels, steamed, washed, went out, separately boys. There was [nothing vulgar with open towels], no one was peeping,” one of the graduates said.
Another graduate denied the words in the Meduza article that the director bathed with girls, and said that he always bathed only with boys.
“About Tanya Karsten’s conversion, I can say that it really looks like some kind of wet teenage fantasy,” said another graduate.
"It's just impossible"
“I studied at this school for five years. I kept some contact with these people, so I have known them for almost seven years. And I think my opinion can hardly be called unfounded. For seven years of acquaintance, I still gained some experience of communication, and I can say that it was impossible, this is not true, this is slander, ”said the graduate.
“In general, there are a lot of us, people who believe that this is simply impossible,” a classmate supported the girl.
According to the interlocutors of the correspondent of the TV channel, there were no “wet kisses” either. Izyumov "chastely" and "fatherly" kissed girls at a meeting, shook hands with guys.
“These are not such people. With such people it would be impossible. Both Sergei Alexandrovich and Nikolai Mikhailovich are people of principle. They have some notions of honor, of principles, in general, some kind of moral principles. These are the people who raised us. They not only gave us knowledge, they taught us to defend our opinion, to be self-confident, to respect the work of others,” said one of the former students of the League of Schools.
“As far as I know, most of these people communicate closely with each other. For example, Irina Dmitrieva, who decided not to hide her name, communicated very well with Tanya Karsten. Izyumov and Bebchuk are punchy people, I think some of them could have conflict and resentment with accusers," the graduate said.
Recall, according to Meduza’s investigation, League of Schools students were sexually harassed by principal Sergei Bebchuk and his deputy Nikolai Izyumov. The school was closed in 2015 after a group of alumni and staff conducted their own investigation. They put forward demands for Bebchuk and Izyumov to quit and no longer work in the education system.
The Investigative Committee has begun an audit, and a member of the Federation Council, Elena Mizulina, intends to submit to the State Duma a bill providing for life punishment for child molestation.
Next news
Today, the loudest scandal of the week has continued. Secrets of an elite lyceum in Moscow - graduates spoke about the monstrous deeds of their mentors. The director and his deputy are suspected of sexual crimes against children.
The former head of the school, closed in 2015, was hiding from reporters. But Channel One correspondents found him. Exclusive footage - today Sergei Bebchuk was taken to the Investigative Committee.
All questions have already been asked, Sergei Bebchuk has already left the TFR building. He stayed inside for about two hours.
For three days, during the scandal, the former director of school 1199 Sergei Bebchuk was hiding from journalists. He was not at home, the phone was switched off. Today he was taken to the department of the Investigative Committee for a preliminary conversation.
Vera Volyak is a woman who, 20 years later, decided on an extremely frank interview with Channel One. Now she lives in London and painfully talks about her relationship with Sergei Bebchuk throughout high school. In the photographs of that time - a thoughtful girl. According to her, encouragement, attention from the teacher overcame disgust for everything that was happening. She just didn't understand the seriousness. On the eve of his own wedding, Sergei Bebchuk, according to the woman, touched her for the last time. It was already 11th grade.
Sergei Bebchuk began teaching computer science in 1988. In the circle of specialists, he was known: he was one of the ten strongest programmers in the country, he even got into the American profile encyclopedia for the 90th year, he opened his "League of Schools" in the 94th. A place for gifted children, carefully selected students and teachers. His authority, as graduates recall, was indisputable. It was said to come to his dacha to improve mathematics - the children were on their way. It is said that in the bath, because of the high temperature, the blood rushes to the brain, and the puzzles click like nuts - the students went to the bath. And if Vera Volyak's story is about the 90s, then about two dozen more shocking confessions are heard in the press about the 2000s.
The graduates are also accused of sexual harassment by the deputy director, economics teacher Nikolai Izyumov. He gives one interview after another. He says that offended girls who want to take revenge took up arms against them. Why is a logical question. And the answer is a story about the same Bebchuk's dacha. The weather was hot, and one of the students constantly went in a bathing suit, flirting, according to the teacher, with men. Bebchuk decided to teach her a lesson.
Why did girls sometimes voluntarily allow themselves to be hugged and kissed? Where were the parents looking? After all, we are talking about an established system that has existed for 20 years! And, finally, where was the teacher-student distance adjusted to the smallest subtleties?
Judging by the cap pulled down tightly over his eyes and unwillingness to communicate with the press, Sergei Bebchuk intends to remain silent to the last. So far, this story has more questions than answers. After all, all actual evidence of intimate relationships with graduates, if they existed, has long been lost.
