School Watchman Dismissed for Reading Georgian Dream’s Newspaper

Watchman of the Poti Public School # 7 Zuri Tavartkiladze said he was sacked for the reading of the Georgian Dream’s newspaper. “I was punished for reading a newspaper,” Zuri Tavartkiladze stated.

The former watchman recalled the fact: “In the morning, on my way to the school, I found the newspaper stuck in the door. I decided to take the newspaper to school and read it there. I do not know how the school administration learned about it, or who saw me. Short time later, the chief school resource officer came and demanded me to write explanation letter; they compelled me to write that I was propagandizing the newspaper in the school. I was told they called the General Inspection of the Education Ministry to inform about it. The Ministry instructed the director to fire me. I have no complaints about the director. He had to obey the order.”

Director of the Poti public school # 7 Chabuki Koiava told the Netgazeti that the incident really happened between the resource officers and Tavartkiladze regarding the newspaper. “I was not at school at that moment. It occurred in the second half of the day but when I arrived there, the Resource Officers were holding the newspaper and had written the protocol. They wrote the watchman had brought a political newspaper to school; I have not seen the protocol myself.  I have not seen the watchman distributing the newspaper and have not heard about it either.”

Koiava said Zuri Tavartkiladze personally decided to quit the school because he had already received a remark from the administration before.

“He missed his working day several times and he was rebuked for it. He was rebuked for having the newspaper in school and in order to avoid future problems, he decided to quit job. So, Tavartkiladze was dismissed based on his personal application,” the school director said.

“Where can I sue them?! Nobody can win a trial in this country, particularly if the watchman sues the employer. If we had lived in a democratic country, I would have appealed to the court. But, here it is useless,” Zuri Tavartkiladze said.

Zuri Tavartkiladze had worked on various positions at the Public School # 7 for 20 years. He was premise manager and art teacher too.

“I was candidate of the National Council for the local elections in 2010. I was teaching art them; afterwards, they demoted me to the position of the watchman; but now they finally sacked me,” Tavartkiladze said.