“In September of this year, a total of four administrative violation proceedings were initiated in the Pierīgas Ziemeku station of the Riga Regional Administration of the State Police for the emotional and physical violence inflicted on a student born in 2009 by other students in the period from September 3 to 5,” Latvijas Televīzijai (LTV) was told by the representative of the State Police, Ilze Jurēvica.
All four perpetrators are sledders, three of whom were born in 2005, and one in 2007. Latvian Television unofficially knows that the systematic violence against one school newcomer at the beginning of the school year was a kind of initiation. This is not a new situation at the Murjani Sports Gymnasium, and it is also confirmed to LTV by the director of the school, Sergejs Chevers.
Chever states that he has heard of such cases before, and the situation was even more serious years ago. After taking office, the director promises that such cases will not be forgotten. Also, one of the four students involved has already left the school, while the other three have received warnings, which means that the next violation will be the last for the student in Murjāni.
The director explains that this case once again made people talk about the usefulness of the gymnasium, and Chevers himself, going to the competition for the position of head of the school, expressed the position that only high school classes should remain in the educational institution, where only the athletes of the Olympic sports teams study. In order to realize this, it would be necessary to cooperate with one of the Latvian universities, because we must not forget that most school graduates do not stay in professional sports, but try to start careers in some other area of life.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Latvian Luge Sports Federation, Kristaps Mauriņš, tells LTV that all four young athletes are currently suspended from training: “Currently, while the circumstances are being clarified, the involved persons have been suspended from participating in the national teams: juniors, youth. Therefore, they do not participate in special trainings, because the inventory is all purchased by the federation, once made. These are currently sanctions directed by the federation against the involved persons.”
Mauriņš himself is also a graduate of Murjani, but he has not experienced any such “initiation” in his time. “In any case, at the time when I was studying, there was definitely no initiation in our department or anything that would leave a psychological or physical impression on me for the rest of my life. Yes, some jokes, humor, but that’s already the rule in any collective for the most part.”
