A 23-year-old literature teacher in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Russia has been terminated from her position after a video emerged of her dancing suggestively wearing lingerie in a “pole-dancing” style. The teacher, Victoria Kashirina told the Russian press that her dancing is an “artistic side project”. However, when her students uncovered the video, local parents didn’t share her view of artistic expression. In a subsequent interview, the teacher said her dismissal was “absolutely unfair.”
“I have been a pole dancer for several years and have long dreamed of making a video. Of course, it was not meant for students,” Kashirina said.
“The student’s mother demanded that I close the account. I refused, and in the end, I blocked both the daughter and the mother,” she said. “But it was already too late. In the morning, the director wrote and demanded that I remove the video, but the video itself was already widely shared among the parents.”
“The dismissal is absolutely unfair. There is nothing here to contradict the rules of the employment contract. Immoral behavior is generally a very abstract concept. Where they saw immoral behavior in my work is a mystery.”
Kashirina claims that the racy video was filmed for “aesthetic purposes,” and that she was never concerned about what her students would think of her online content. “No! I was not worried. Before that, my students followed me on Instagram and saw my content. Our professional relationship did not suffer from this.”
Pole-Dancing Video Doesn’t Appeal to Parents
According to Russian news outlet govoritmoskva.ru,
“The video was seen by the mother of one of the students and wrote an angry message: “Could you not post a video of this frank kind? Or close the profile. My daughter is watching, your authority is clearly not a teacher’s. “
The teacher refused to delete the video, after which the director of the private “Online Gymnasium No. 1″ demanded to write a letter of resignation of his own free will. Kashirina refused, but in the end she was promised to be fired for immoral behavior, Sib.FM reports.”
As many things (and there are many) as you can say about repression and corruption in Russia, at least you can say that the local school boards listen to the parents. Comparatively in the US, the controversy would likely stem from a School Board supporting a pole-dancing educator.
