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Subscribe to RSSBEIJING – Parents across China this week were shocked when two separate stories of gross physical abuse against kindergarten-aged children made national headlines.
On Tuesday, police in the city of Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi, detained a teacher at the Sky Montessori kindergarten after parents complained about alleged physical abuse there.
Closed-circuit TV video from inside the classroom -- released to the media soon after the scandal broke -- confirmed what parents had already inferred from their children's bruises and stories: that their teacher, Li Zhuqing, was slapping, kicking, hitting and verbally abusing them.
A video from a local Shanxi provincial news program (report in Chinese; footage starts around 34 seconds in) shows Li repeatedly slapping and shoving around the children over a 10 minute period. Two girls are shown being repeatedly slapped in the face while a boy is seen being slapped and then shoved into another student.
The father of one of the girls said he reported the abuse to the police after his daughter came home with a bruised eye and cheek, and explained to the news program why his daughter was singled out.
Complete Asia-Pacific coverage on NBCNews.com
"The teacher [Li] did it because she couldn't answer 10 plus one correctly," said the father, surnamed Han. He noted that his daughter could do simple single-digit addition, but could not understand Li's explanation of how to solve higher sums.
According to Han, his daughter was slapped in the face around 70 times and kicked twice, while three other children in the class were reportedly hit 43, 10 and 27 times respectively.
"She is not a teacher. She should not be a teacher. To put it plainly, she is not a human being," said Han.
The story quickly went viral and drew hundreds of thousands of comments on China's Twitter-like service Weibo.
"How can the world have people like this? Her parents should be ashamed of having a daughter like that!" wrote one user. "Watching this video made me cry ... Children should never be treated like this," added another.
Li was detained under a 15-day "administrative detention," common when Chinese police are waiting to charge someone, Chinese state media reported. The Montessori school, which reportedly was unlicensed and therefore operating illegally, was also shut down indefinitely. Taiyuan city authorities pledged a month-long investigation of other municipal schools to ensure there were no other cases of abuse.
Boy held up by ears
But there was more outrage to come: Another school abuse scandal broke the next day after a picture taken at the Blue Peacock kindergarten in Wenling, Zhejiang province, circulated online.
The photo showed a teacher holding up a child by his ears -- the boy obviously in pain and the teacher grinning widely.
The teacher, Yan Yanhong, 20, was detained and police opened an investigation. Authorities revealed that she had been working without a license and that the school had been applying to certify her while she worked.
News of the abuse quickly spread around the Web, where it garnered more than 4 million posts and became a trending topic on Weibo by Thursday.
"This person is seriously sick!" wrote a disgusted Weibo user. "My child starts school next year, how frightening!" said another.
Teng Linhua, Vice-director of the Wenling Education Bureau, told the China Daily newspaper that "all teachers at private and public schools must have qualifications before being hired."
Teng said only 40 percent of kindergarten teachers in Wenling were properly qualified.
NBC News' Le Li and Johanna Armstrong contributed to this report.
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The cruel tutelage of Pei Mei
Japanese foreign exchange students have it rough.
Tie her to a street lamp post with a sign saying that I am the one that punched and slapped those little children. Lets see how long she lives.
That's the way thier government treats people, so they might as well get used to it while they are young.
Obama can we give more GREEN CARDS to these poor ,poor people !
I hope they cut that @!$%# in prison
The other children don't even look up when she is hitting these kids. This happens all the time. This is what happens when you have 1.4 billion people in a country. So much for individualism.
I'm torn...first reaction is to say this teacher will get what she deserves in a Chinese prison. I then think, and realize it's probably this type of brute force among grown-ups that contributes to such behavior towards children.
There would be no punishment sufficient enough to satisfy me if that happened to one of my babies. The news would be "mother in jail" instead of teacher caught. I'm in tears after seeing that. I couldn't watch it all because it kept showing it. I don't care what country it is in, children should be protected at all cost.
In my case it would be "Father In Jail".
Did you know there are people in the U.S. who are actually afraid of these barbarians?
The Soviets tried to outproduce us, & failed. The Japanese, South Koreans, Germans, & most of the rest of western Europe have all taken their shots, & failed. Now the Chinese are going to try mass quantities. However quality is at least equally important.
We have nothing to fear.
Don't worry, the Teachers Union will get her job back and vote her Union President
Unions are banned in China. They're banned in every communist country. Didn't you know?
It shouldn't matter where this happened it is child abuse period! I am outraged that people think this is ok or the norm using communism as an excuse. This is not ok in China, not ok in the US, not ok anywhere in the world no matter what! Our world will never find peace with people thinking this is ok because it's not the US, but when it happens here everyone is outraged.
Thnakfully the video made it to our shores for us all to see. At least the Chinese government will have a much harder time excusing the dragon's behavior.
All of you who are suggesting beating a teacher if your kid came home with bruises, just what are you teaching your children - that violence justifies further violence. What would taking a baseball bat to a teacher (as was suggested) really do but teach your child that beating someone with a bat is okay? I am not suggesting that if this were to happen to my child I would turn the other cheek - heck no - but I would sure bring it to the attention of the authorities, and the school, I would not let my child back in a calssroom with the teacher, and if necessary (if the school did not investigate) I would find me a lawyer and sue the stuffing out of the teacher and the school, but I would not meet violence with violence.
We wonder why our society (and I dont give a rats a$$ about CHinas society) is so violent today - it is because thats what we teach our kids by our words and actions.
It's very simple. It would show My children that I'm ready and able to defend them from such trash and demonstrate to other such trash that abusing kids is a bad thing. I personall think that everyone who abuses children should be decapitated and their heads mounted on poles at the city limits with a big sign that says 'This is what happens if you hurt our children'.
Dean- Getting midevil on pediphiles is a great idea once (at least in this country) after they have been tried and convicted.
How dare her slap the children shame on YOU!..... they are there to learn not learn how to bully! you make me sick to my stomach!!
I don't really see the need for all of the trash talking about China. This happens all over the world...whether anyone wants to believe it or not.
Maybe J81666. but China has the WORST human rights record. if they don't like their protesters, they just run them over in the street with their tanks.
Not to worry about a China takeover. According to the Treasury Dept., two-thirds of the national debt is owed to the U.S. government, American investors and future retirees, through the Social Security Trust Fund and pension plans for civil service workers and military personnel. Japan and China hold less than 8% each borrowed by our government over the years. As of today, the deficit is @$11Trillion and going down. Prez Obama has done a great job in steering our country from the brink to a much better upward movement. No thanks to the repub/tparty that looked only to destroy our Prez and us with their filibustering. It's election time, payback time. Out with the repub/tparty!
The thing that amazed me most after the outrage at the teacher was how disciplined the children where to take her punishment. She really needs to spend some time in prison. Someone earlier (earthgirl) made the comment, let he who is without fault cast the first stone. Well earthgirl I can tell you this much, if you had of been that little girl being repeadly being slapped you'd beg someone to not only throw a stone, but pick up a brick and hit her in the head with it. Jesus said, it would be better to have a milstone tied around your neck and cast in the sea rather than to hurt a child. So don't be so holier than thou and wake up and smell the coffee.
jville, YOU need to wake up and smell the "coffee." Unfortuantely, her figures are RIGHT on. And if Romney has his way, we will be buddy buddies with the country with the WORST record of civil rights for its people. China has ALWAYS done things this way. they are a Communist country for crine out loud!
And to think that Bain Capital (Romney's company) is taking jobs away from Americans and sending it to China so that they can make children,who are not even in their teens yet, do their slave labor. Yes, America is different. We have labor laws which protect children. At least as long as Obama is president.
These people do not know that Satan is laughing at them because he knows that people who Hate
are coming to him in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20: 12-15) and people who Love one another will have everlasting Joy on the Street of Gold in Heaven (Revelation 21: 21). I cannot understand how these people
have a mother who brought them into the world and do not love their sisters.
You realize John was in his dotage when he wrote Revelations? For example, everyone throughout the entire Roman empire knew the Jewish Gematria assigned the number 666 to Nero. John's attempts to conceal his jabs at Persia, the Circus Maximus, the fall of Jerusalem, etc., were laughably obvious.
I would slap the life out of that pos teacher !
It looks like Catholic school in the 50's, it is bringing back memories.
God help anyone who would dare lay hands on my child. I'd go through hell and back to ensure they suffered ten fold.
and THATS China for ya. and If Romney takes office, he wants to be best friends with them. Is this video suprising anyone?
Honestly, they would have to lock me up...because I would kill this biotch. No doubt about it.
People who abuse children are the lowest, most disgusting scum on earth. What type of monster attacks someone who is defenseless? CHILD ABUSERS, that's who.
What do "qualifications" have to do with being an abusive person? What kind of stupid statement is that?