Every year, school pupils go through the same rigmarole of struggling through the exam period, often spending months of their lives stressing over and preparing for their finals. And, while all tests are nerve wracking to some degree, there are certainly some that are made unnecessarily worse by external factors.
This week, for example, reports emerged that a student at a school in Russia had been reduced to hysterics and was left unable to sit her exam after she was forced to remove her bra during a security check.
The 17-year-old girl, who has not been named, claimed that she was made to take off her underwear, as the underwire kept setting off the metal detectors, and walk through the standard security check wearing only a see-through shirt.
All the while, she says, the male security team were "focused on her bust".
The girl's sister wrote a post complaining about the incident, saying: "Girls were this year made not only to give away their mobile phones but also to take off their underwear."
She continued:
"The guards held back my sister, forced her to take off her bra and to walk in her transparent chiffon blouse over her naked body through the metal detector frame in front of two men who were focused on her bust.
"What could she write after this in her exam? She was in hysterics. She was not permitted to delay the exam.
"Doctors were called twice … she was not allowed to call her parents."
And it appears that this was not an isolated incident, either.
A previous student of the school, Polina Kulikovksaya, told reporters that she had endured the same treatment during exam periods.
"We were told to take our bras off in a separate room, then walk in front of other (students) in our shirts through the security," she said. "Thank God mine was not transparent."
Another parent at the school voiced concerns over the matter and asked where she could complain about the misconduct that had taken place. "My friend has called me in a state of shock, she said that her daughter was forced to take off her bra," she wrote. "How could it happen?"
She went on: "Tell us, please, what shall we do? Where to complain? These exams are such a stress for all students, and now they make them cry and undress."
One other mother concurred, saying that - on top of the stressful circumstances - students were being forced to do exams in torturous conditions:
"My daughter has sat the exam too - it was freezing at school and they had to stay there for four hours. At the entrance they searched them like in a jail – only the guard dogs were missing.
“What a terror for our children. Where are the children’s rights protectors?"
However, a male teacher at the school, Eduard Taymasov, has defended the actions of those who allegedly forced the teenager to remove her underwear.
"Teachers warn students to wear clothes without any metal hooks, buttons or chains, and it’s the same about bras," he said.
"Many children just do not bother. At every meeting, the clothes are discussed a hundred times… They don’t take off their bras in front of others, there is a special room where they do it. Usually, it is checked and they go."
The security measures have been increased recently after a spate of knife attacks in classrooms, but this does not seem reason enough to make a student remove her underwear - especially if her shirt was already sheer enough to see that she was not concealing a weapon.
Unfortunately, as it stands, it does not appear that much will be done about the matter - which is terrible news for students who have yet to sit their exams.
