Remember the EHU student who fought against lecturer harassment? She lost the case and owes the university 8 thousand euros
In 2023, a scandal erupted at EHU: artist and lecturer Siarhiej Sialetski was accused of unethical behavior towards students and, after several months of investigation, was dismissed. Tatsiana Barysava was one of the students who publicly complained about Sialetski. However, the matter did not end there.
As a result, Barysava herself was expelled from the university, and the initially dismissed lecturer was reinstated by court order. The girl also went to court to have her expulsion declared illegal — she was indeed returned to EHU, but now the university has won the appeal and deducted 8,600 euros from her.
“The first court case regarding my expulsion I handled myself — I wrote all the texts (except for the damage calculation), called witnesses, spoke — and partially won. But the appeal, which takes place in writing and in absentia, I fully entrusted to a state lawyer and did not read a single text from the case, except for the final paragraphs — to pay 7719.62 to the university for the lawyer. It so happened that all this time I worked like a horse, sometimes 240 hours a month — so there was no time or energy left to read court texts, let alone write them,” Tatsiana said on her Facebook.
“Now, through the bailiff, my accounts are in a deficit of 8,500 (besides the EHU money, there is also a bailiff's markup).”
Tatsiana doesn't understand what arguments could have been made for the court to recognize her previous expulsion as legal. Despite the difficult life situation, she does not despair:
“If I continue to move stone wool and pick at the soil with a crowbar on my weekends in the summer (thanks to others' sick leaves and vacations), I will be in the black in less than a year — my salary is excellent, and the job itself is too. In any case, I managed to withdraw money for apartment rent for May, so I won't be homeless anytime soon.”
Let us remind you, Tatsiana, along with other students, spoke out about the humiliation from Sialetski. According to her, the lecturer disparaged her for her nationality and financial situation (the girl is from Russia and at that time was raising a small son alone), and spread rumors about her.
After Tatsiana's interview, Sialetski filed a complaint against her with the university's ethics commission, and the girl responded with an open letter to the university community. Subsequently, the rector himself filed a complaint against her, and in December 2023, Tatsiana was expelled. Later, the Vilnius court overturned that decision, but in the end, it was still deemed legal, and the girl remained indebted to EHU for the lawyer's fees.
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