diagnosing him with a hyperkinetic behaviour disorder. At the same time, however, there was a GP-issued interim epicrisis diagnosing him as “clinically normal”. The students’ medical documents available upon their admission to the boarding school were stored in their administrative files and were unknown to the GP, which is a contravention of Article 45 of the Rules and Regulations on the Setup and Operations of Correctional Boarding Schools and Social and Pedagogical Boarding Schools. Most students interviewed admitted to using tobacco products without restrictions, as well as psychoactive substances during school holidays. None of the students expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the medical care provided at the boarding school. 5.4. Administration and Management As was evident from the staff establishment plan, the boarding school had a staff of thirty-five members: one principal, one assistant principal, twenty-three education specialists (Ed.S.), and ten administrative and support staff. Staff members were assigned to duty on a rotating schedule with a view to ensuring around-theclock availability of teaching staff (two supervisors were present on night duty) and safe continuity of child care and responsibility between shift changes. 5.5. Protection Measures What the NPM inspection team found to be extremely worrying was the psychosocial safety climate within the boarding school. The work environment was poisoned and hostile. The relations between students and staff were far from good. The boarding school staff were pitted against the NPM inspection team just as well. During the interviews, most children appeared to be tense, anxious, and reluctant to share. According to staff members, the lack of clarity as to whether the institution would be closed down was conducive to stress, as some of them might lose their jobs. With a view to coping with the negative psychosocial factors and poisoned work environment, the NPM recommends that supervision with staff members be conducted. Furthermore, an external psychologist should be hired to work on restoring the foundation of trust between the children and the boarding school staff. Another serious problem identified by the NPM during the inspection at the CBS relates to student drug and alcohol use. The NPM is of the opinion that the boarding school does not have professionals capable of dealing with the issue. Hence, assistance should be sought from external institutions and organisations. The same problem had been repeatedly identified during inspections conducted by other entities, such as the State Agency for Child Protection and the public prosecutor’s office in the provincial capital of Pazardzhik. Furthermore, the public prosecutor had issued an order that the principal explicitly forbid students from bringing, being in possession, or using cell phones on school campus. All cell phones are collected from the students upon arrival to the school, logged, and stored for safekeeping by school supervisors. Phones are returned to the children upon leaving the school. A free phone line is provided for the children on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays to make calls to their near and dear. Phone calls are only made in the presence of a teacher or a supervisor. In talking to the children, the NPM team received a number of complaints about thefts and violence between students, as well as about conflicts between students and supervisors. In a minuted interview with the child A.H., conducted on his own initiative, he shared that on 21 November 2015, between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m., he was physically assaulted by a supervisor. The supervisor in question also presented to the NPM team his version of events. He denied the 64

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