Rumor is false but anxiety is real
Print Edition
A RUMOR online about possible human trafficking at an elementary school in Minhang provoked panic among parents. The rumor was eventually found to be unfounded, but the police have urged parents to be vigilant.
Shenxing Elementary School in Xinzhuang Town posted a notice on its official Weibo account, citing rumors that a woman might abduct a first-grade student at the school gate after classes.
“A woman in around her 50s said to a child that ‘your mom can’t come to pick you up today so I’ll take you home,’” said the notice. “But fortunately, the grandfather of the child was there and he took his grandchild away immediately.”
Zhang Junmei, headmaster of the school, said the grandfather reported the incident to the school but didn’t call the police or campus security. The school issued the notice after the family warned other parents about possible abductions in an online chat group.
The Shanghai Public Security Bureau Minhang District branch went to the school to investigate the issue and watched surveillance camera video of that afternoon.
But the video showed that every adult at the scene left with a child and there were no suspicious people lurking about. No child was reported missing.
The police interrogated the grandfather, who finally admitted that he might have misread the situation of a woman innocently talking to a child at the gate.
To assuage public anxiety, the school has suggested that parents create a “safe code” with their children.
If parents send someone else to pick up their children, the students are instructed to exchange the code words with them before going anywhere with them.
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