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Five year old girls escape from kindergarten and walk home in bitter -45C cold to ‘give mothers a surprise’
One had no gloves as she clutched her favourite toy - and is badly frostbitten while both suffered from hypothermia, but survived.
'Surprisingly, the kindergarten is small, only 50 children attend it, the room is small, it is impossible not to notice anything.'
The girls left the Tullukchaan kindergarten at Namtsy village, Yakutia, without staff noticing - which is now the subject of an urgent investigation.
A video shows the girls slipping out of the door unseen by teachers or staff.
One girl is now in hospital in regional capital Yakutsk with three fingers frostbitten.
The other got lost on the way home and took shelter in the nearest house.
She suffered from hypothermia but was able to return home after being checked by doctors.
Evdokia Kutukova, whose daughter Lena is frostbitten, said: ‘Three of her fingers froze hard. She is crying.
‘The children are still in shock.’
Pictures shows the girls slipping out of the door unseen by teachers or staff.
She had gone to the kindergarten at 5pm, earlier than usual.
She noticed immediately her daughter’s warm winter coat was missing.
‘I ran to the teacher, she said: 'It seems that she was just here'.
‘She ran to check the peg of Lena's best friend - also empty.
‘I called her parents, hoping they took both girls.
‘They did not know anything.
‘We all started to panic.
‘Then our grandfather called and said that Lena had just come home alone, all in tears, frozen.
‘I immediately ran home.
‘I took her and ran to the Namsky hospital, then here, to Yakutsk…
‘The other girl was found only an hour later.
‘She entered some other house after getting lost.
‘Thank God, she guessed to enter someone else's house.
‘It is good that she was not frostbitten, just extremely cold.’
Tullukchaan kindergarten which attend the girls.
The other explained: 'The girls decided to give their parents a surprise and come home by themselves.’
They chose one of the coldest days of winter in the world’s iciest inhabited region. They had never left before.
‘They love their kindergarten, and have been going here for two years.
‘Lena had mittens in her pocket, but she did not wear them.
‘She has a jacket with long sleeves.
‘If it were not for them, everything could be worse.
'Our home is in a 15-minute walk of an adult, but it is a village here, all dark.
'Surprisingly, the kindergarten is small, only 50 children attend it, the room is small, it is impossible not to notice anything.
‘The management promised to take action.’
The temperature dropped to minus 45 degrees Celsius that days.
Her husband said that a passing stranger had tied a scarf for their daughter which had helped her.
‘How cold it was without gloves, it's hard to imagine, and with a toy in hand!
‘People, be kinder, do not pass by small children on the street in the dark when you see them alone.
‘Daughter, be strong, you are so strong, smart, love you very much, proud. Get well, really miss you.'
The Investigative Committee is probing the incident to examine if there was criminal negligence by kindergarten staff.
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Sent to Siberia
Born in Siberia
Comments (9)
Most websites that allow Comments, employ some form of Moderation. However, the purpose of moderation is not to reduce diversity (to censor), but to foster & protect it. The Siberian Times is mildly unusual, though, in moderating every single comment, before it is published on the site. Each comment has to wait for someone with Admin authority to eye-ball & approve it, before it goes online.
During the earlier 20th C, Russia vied for the status of greatest nation on earth, under the auspices of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. ("On earth" and "ever existed" are of course different categories of competition.) Now, the USSR (and thus Russia) was always saddled with flaws (who is perfect?) in both design & execution. But still, they were an impressive contender (and though it slipped, Russia remains a contender).
Among the more-damaging mistakes under the Soviet, was Lysenkoism.
Censorship was vital to the promulgation of the pseudo-science of Mr. Lysenko. Saying anything negative about it got you censored (for starters). This was necessary because the Theory possessed the scientific rigor of wet tissue paper, through which the intellect of any bright child could punch holes, all day long.
What a tragedy ... while the Russian nation has struggled at the verge of historic greatness, the Russian culture has very few peers. Ever. Especially in science. Even despite censorship strangling it for a generation. Imaging what could have been...
Remember Sputnik? I remember Sputnik. Russia was first.
The kindergarten obviously lacked indispensable safety measures. IMHO it's obviously a criminal case of negligence.
The United States of America is arguably the greatest country that has ever existed. I'm both proud and grateful to be a citizen. I have & continue to contribute, in keeping with my station & abilities. Same as millions of good Russian citizens.
Your objections to my previous comment are mostly too over-generalized for me to address or explain.
I started off right at the top, by expressing concern for Lena's frostbite injury. First things first ...
The staff at kindergarten are in fact at risk of potential legal penalties. My remarks took pains to advocate against such measures ... that there is no sign of malice or corruption, that what happened is a garden-variety human error, that those who goofed were strongly affected by their lapse, and can be expected to perform better in the future. Without punitive action.
But to be clear & real, the mistakes that occurred at the kindergarten pretty-much *should* have resulted in two frozen little corpses...
===
"Forks can get cold...". Are you sure you're from Washington State? Forks is situated in the heart of what is called the Maritime Temperate Rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. It's wet, it's chilly ... but it's very mild and is generally the LAST place in Washington or PacNW to experience "cold". It's about 10 km from the Pacific beaches.
And just because I hail from Forks doesn't say I don't know yellow snow.
Instead of showing empathy, you show judgement. Instead of showing compassion and their ability to survive deadly cold, you show criticism. Typical American b.s. from a typical American idiot.
Forks can get cold, but nothing like Siberia. Russians are tough, hardy people as this story demonstrates. No doubt these facts are lost on you, idiot.
I once read a memorable article by a young mother, "Why Do I Love Alaska? Because I'm Responsible". She went on to detail all the preparations she makes to take a drive in the car, with her children. "Even just a quick run ... how far can you walk back to shelter, at 40 below, with little kids, if the car conks out or gets stuck"?
Lena had gloves, but did not put them on. Likely, others still put them on for her. Hopefully, these are mittens, and not gloves. Mitts are much warmer, and very small children can be trained to put them on.
At least in this case, the two girls were coat-trained. Often though, kids grow to a pretty advanced age, without being trained to zip or button their coats: someone else has always done it for them.
There was obviously no direct supervision. Staff were somewhere else, and the room full of little kids were on their own. This is probably a testament to the quality of the kindergarten environment, and to the quality of the kids home-life. They were well-behaved, constructively occupied, and they could be relied upon to be good little citizens.
Problem-kids, otoh, you have to stay right with them, 'on them' every second.
No doubt, the horror & mortification of the early discovery of the missing girls, and the terrifying video of them walking out the door by themselves, more than seared the proper lessons into the staff's brains & hearts.
I appreciate that continually watching children is harder than it sounds, so why not fit a cheap and simple battery operated bell that rings when the door is opened.
Locking the door is not smart in case of fire. But a simple bell that alerts staff when the door is opened would avoid this happening again.