Gate left locked in fatal crush of young students
By Li Qian |
March 1, 2013, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO officials at a primary school failed to unlock a dormitory gate on time, causing a stampede in which four children died when they were crushed against the gate in Laohekou in the central province of Hubei, local government officials said yesterday.
Seven other children were injured, three severely.
Du Guiqiang, headmaster of Qinji elementary school in Laohekou, and Zhang Jihui, political education director, didn't open the dormitory gate at 6am as usual on Wednesday, causing students to crowd on stairs, officials said an initial investigation found.
Six people including the two school officials and a dormitory superintendent, have been detained, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
Also yesterday, however, parents of children attending Qinji elementary school said teachers dined together on Tuesday night and some got drunk, and thus they couldn't get up to open the door, Xinhua news agency reported.
Parents said the school, where 502 of the 952 students board, was severely crowded, with students sleeping side-by-side, in some cases in dormitories converted from classroom space.
The mother of one of the dead students, Sun Ruixuan, told China Youth Daily that she believed her daughter might rush to the gate to get to a public toilet because there were no bathrooms in the building where the children were locked at night.
There is only one exit on the first floor of the school's temporary dormitory, which used to be a four-story teaching building. Due to safety concerns, teachers locked the gate at the first floor every night and opened it at 6am.
China Youth Daily found that every 50 to 60 children shared a room. Children often went to sleep without taking off clothes, and didn't wash their face, hands and feet in a week, Sun said.
Local officials did not confirm the allegations. School officials said in an earlier interview with Xinhua that students were so excited by the start of a new semester that they woke up earlier, before the gates were supposed to open.
The four students who died after emergency treatment included a first-grader, a fifth-grader and two second-graders.
The three severely injured students were transferred to a well-equipped hospital in Xiangyang City, where they have shown improvement, Dragon TV reported yesterday. They are conscious and can speak, the news program said.
Du and Zhang are among the eight education officials being sacked from their posts for dereliction of duty. Twelve people are being investigated in the accident.
The student body of the school has grown over the past decade as elementary schools in Laohekou were reduced from 139 to 39, according to Xinhua. Children living in eight villages go to Qinji, many walking a long way. The school has no buses, Xinhua said.
Seven other children were injured, three severely.
Du Guiqiang, headmaster of Qinji elementary school in Laohekou, and Zhang Jihui, political education director, didn't open the dormitory gate at 6am as usual on Wednesday, causing students to crowd on stairs, officials said an initial investigation found.
Six people including the two school officials and a dormitory superintendent, have been detained, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
Also yesterday, however, parents of children attending Qinji elementary school said teachers dined together on Tuesday night and some got drunk, and thus they couldn't get up to open the door, Xinhua news agency reported.
Parents said the school, where 502 of the 952 students board, was severely crowded, with students sleeping side-by-side, in some cases in dormitories converted from classroom space.
The mother of one of the dead students, Sun Ruixuan, told China Youth Daily that she believed her daughter might rush to the gate to get to a public toilet because there were no bathrooms in the building where the children were locked at night.
There is only one exit on the first floor of the school's temporary dormitory, which used to be a four-story teaching building. Due to safety concerns, teachers locked the gate at the first floor every night and opened it at 6am.
China Youth Daily found that every 50 to 60 children shared a room. Children often went to sleep without taking off clothes, and didn't wash their face, hands and feet in a week, Sun said.
Local officials did not confirm the allegations. School officials said in an earlier interview with Xinhua that students were so excited by the start of a new semester that they woke up earlier, before the gates were supposed to open.
The four students who died after emergency treatment included a first-grader, a fifth-grader and two second-graders.
The three severely injured students were transferred to a well-equipped hospital in Xiangyang City, where they have shown improvement, Dragon TV reported yesterday. They are conscious and can speak, the news program said.
Du and Zhang are among the eight education officials being sacked from their posts for dereliction of duty. Twelve people are being investigated in the accident.
The student body of the school has grown over the past decade as elementary schools in Laohekou were reduced from 139 to 39, according to Xinhua. Children living in eight villages go to Qinji, many walking a long way. The school has no buses, Xinhua said.
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