Tensions are boiling over in the village of Masis, pitting local residents against a group of property owners who say they have permission to build a residential building on a piece of land some say belongs to the school itself. Today, the owners arrived with heavy equipment and started to dismantle a playground with swings and other attractions the pupils had been using. They also wanted to rebuild a wall between the school and the piece of land they say belongs to them. Parents of the school children are outraged and told Hetq that the workers showed up with a police escort and proceeded to remove the play area attractions. Local resident Olga Sargsyan decried what happened. "They came with the cops and equipment and started to knock it all down. What right do they have to build anything on school property?" She added that the mayor could have stopped the destruction if he wanted to. One of the owners alleges that it was the parents who last night dismantled the fence. "I have the property documents and permission to build here. Everything is being done legally," he claimed. The school, built in 1972, has an enrollment of 70 pupils. In 2000, during a new mapping of the area, the school property was cut from 8,340 square meters to 6,178. The remaining 2,162 square meters was auctioned off to five individuals by former Mayor Sasha Hakobyan. School staff and nearby residents say they were never notified of the auction and thus, it was conducted illegally and should be voided. Olga Sargsyan, the mother of the school’s principal, argues that the former mayor granted ownership of the land in question in return for favors and that the current mayor has granted permission to build in a similar fashion. She also alleges that the owners are in cahoots with the cops who let the builders destroy the playground. "The whole affair is illegal. This belongs to the pupils." New owner Valer Aleksanyan told Hetq that he is willing to rebuild the playground attractions, including a carousel. He claims that a cement basin on the land is not a kids’ swimming pool as residents contend. The school principal told Hetq that all their complaints have been answered in similar fashion - the former mayor made this decision; what can we do now? As the owners and residents debated the issue, the school kids were playing on some black-top at the school’s entrance.