Parents contest plan to open school for ‘leprosy children’
Print Edition
CONTROVERSY is raging in Yiliang County, Yunnan Province, over a local government plan to build a dedicated primary school for children from families with a history of leprosy.
The decision was taken following complaints from parents who said the children posed a health risk to other pupils, thepaper.cn reported yesterday.
Opponents to the scheme, however, described it as prejudiced and a waste of public funds.
The controversy came to a head last week when 40 children were turned away from a primary school in Yiliang on the grounds that their relatives had leprosy. Officials refused to enrol them despite the fact they had certificates proving they were in good health.
Several parents responded by taking their children to protest at the county education authority, the report said.
An official there said the government had taken the decision to build a dedicated school as it will “take time for other parents to lose their prejudices.”
Hu Qingsong, whose father had leprosy, was with the protesters, as two of his children were among those turned away by the primary school.
“Parents are afraid of leprosy and believe it can be spread by the relatives of people who have it,” he was quoted as saying.
“Some of them threatened the school officials, saying that if they let kids from leprosy families enrol, they would withdraw their own children.”
Such prejudice meant Hu was deprived of the opportunity to go to school, as were his two oldest children, the report said.
“I just hope my youngest don’t also miss out,” he said.
Leprosy is an infectious disease that can result in severe disfigurement and physical disability if not properly treated, but which can also be cured.
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