Almaty Cracks Down on Guns in Schools

It is not just schools in the United States that are alarmed by rising gun crime. After a spate of incidents involving firearms, schools in Kazakstan’s biggest city, Almaty, have announced a package of measures to prevent guns being brought onto the premises.



In future, pupils will not be allowed out without supervision during school hours by parents, and unauthorised outsiders will be banned from entering the buildings.



The measures will be monitored by a special commission set up to check on security in Almaty’s schools. There are also plans to install security cameras and hire professional guards to patrol school buildings. The city council has earmarked two million US dollars for the project.



Authorities in Almaty took these dramatic steps following a fatal incident at a secondary school in late January, in which a pupil detonated a hand-grenade. Two people died and two others received serious injuries.



Following other incidents involving weapons in schools, the city’s deputy mayor, Serik Seidumanov, set up the special commission.



“From now on, we need police to be present in the schools,” said Seidumanov.



Aygul Shokshebaeva, deputy head of public security in the city police department, blamed the rising incidence of accidents involving weapons on negligent management in the schools, which provide basic military training for pupils.



“We’ve found numerous mines, grenades and other munitions, both with and without [identifying] marks, in outhouse buildings,” she said.



Other education officials say the real problem is that illegal weapons are increasingly available in wider society, and are finding their way into the schools. This is true not only of Almaty and the capital Astana, but also of provincial towns, they say.



“The security problem in the schools is more urgent than ever before,” said a senior teacher at a school in Shymkent, the administrative centre of South Kazakstan region. “Boys used to sort out their disputes with their fists, but now they use weapons, especially firearms.



“It is high time the authorities and the police paid more attention to this and didn’t leave everything up to the poor teachers.”



Several pupils confirmed to IWPR that it is not difficult to get hold of guns these days.



“There are guys who carry weapons. They know where they can get them,” said Oleg, who is in his penultimate year of school. “There are two of them in my class.”



In order to acquire weapons, he said, “all you need is the money to buy them. If I saved up, I would buy some myself, because anything can happen; I might need them.”



Daulet and Asylbek, friends in the final year at an Almaty high school, agreed that weapons were becoming indispensable for young people like them.



“It’s dangerous to walk the streets, especially in the evening,” said Daulet. “A lot of our schoolmates have been robbed of cell phones, money or clothes, many times. If they’d had guns, they could have scared the muggers off.”



At national government level, officials are pondering strategies to reduce youth crime as part of a wider programme to protect children’s interests.



The Almaty police department says that contrary to popular perceptions, juvenile delinquency is not on the rise in the city.



Many parents are doubtful that this is the case.



Gaukhar Mukhamedjanova, whose son Askar is in fifth grade, said she had recently been hearing of numerous cases where schoolchildren had used guns during fights.



“I worry about my child a good deal,” she said. “What is going on in the schools is terrifying. My son is constantly telling me stories about the bigger boys carrying guns.”



Following the latest grenade explosion, she said, “We fear for our children.”



Anna Nechaeva, a juvenile psychologist from the association Childhood Without Borders, told IWPR that her experience showed that today’s teenagers were becoming increasingly aggressive. She noted that some schools, but not all, had in-house child psychologists.



“In my opinion, teenagers today are often emotionally drained because of the huge amount of aggression and violence they are exposed to in the media,” she said.



Marik Koshbaev is an IWPR contributor in Almaty.