KARKLĖNAI
(Kelmė rayon)
During 1970, J.J., a student at the secondary school in Karklėnai would play the organ during services at the church in Pašilė. For several years everything was peaceful, but then complaints began to flow into the school. After the first complaint, [Mrs.] Irena Saunorienė, a teacher, declared during a history lesson: "There are some degenerates amongst us who do not belong in a Soviet school." After another complaint, the principal summoned J.J. and ordered her to stop playing the organ in church; and Irena Saunorienė, the head of the Education Department, took the girl and several of her classmates to the chemistry laboratory and declared that they would be the school's atheists. [Miss] Aldona Butkute was elected president, and J.J. —vice-president; however, both pupils began to protest vigorously that they would not participate in such an organization. Jadvyga was told to go to the principal's office, where Telycenas, the chairman of the Kelme Rayon Executive Committee, and some stranger from Vilnius were waiting for her. This individual, who was probably a security official, began to speak, saying that he had heard that J.J. played the organ in church, that her way to higher education would be blocked, that there was no room for such as she in a Soviet school. In her misery the student began to cry and asked what had she done wrong? The interrogator said to J.J. that she probably did not believe in God but only went to play for the fun of it. "No, I do believe, and I play there gladly," declared the girl. "But child, think of your future... and make sure that this has been the last time," the government representative lectured and threatened. "Take care that you wouldn't have to bid farewell to school." Meanwhile, Irena Saunoriene, the history teacher, was threatening Jadvyga's class, saying that those who serve the ministers of the cult would have their conduct grade lowered, that they would no longer be free to choose a profession, and that they would receive poor characterizations in their school records.
As the school year was ending, Algis Vilkas, the principal, summoned J.J. and told her: "I don't know what to do with you. You're a fanatic! What kind of character reference will you get?" The principal kept his promise: it was noted in her character reference that J.J. had grown up in a religious family, that the parents maintained contact with priests, that she had played the organ in church, and that she had done all this with fanatical stubborness. After completing the secondary school, J.J. tried to enter the Medical Institute of Kaunas, but during her interview with the admissions commission, one instructor read her character reference and asked in amazement: "A fanatic? Girl, you came here in vain!" Later she enrolled in another school of higher learning.
