Student pays double price for spreading rumors online
Print Edition
Education authorities in northwest China’s Gansu Province have intervened after a 16-year-old student who was placed under police custody for spreading online rumors was kicked out by his school.
Yang Hui was called out of his classroom as he prepared for lessons shortly after arriving at Yusheng Middle School in Tianshui City yesterday morning, Beijing News reported.
His father, Yang Niuhu, said he was about to leave after dropping off his son when he saw a school official leading Yang Hui out of the school gate. They were told the school “really can’t accept him due to various pressures.” “I want a definite response telling me why,” the father said.
The father and the son suspect the school’s decision may be linked to the latter’s accusations against the police.
Yang Hui was studying at Zhangjiachuan Town Middle School when he was thrown into a detention house, and under his own volition, he was transferred to Yusheng Middle School on October 29, the newspaper reported.
On November 10, Yang wrote on Weibo.com, a Twitter-like service, that about four to five policemen had beaten him before the interrogation after he was escorted from school to the Zhangjiachun County police station on September 17.
He said he kept silent at that time because he just came to know recently that the act was illegal and decided to make it public, the newspaper reported.
The Gansu Education Department responded yesterday afternoon. “We have closely followed the case. We have ordered the Tianshui City Education Bureau to check the facts,” its statement on Weibo.com said.
“It is everyone’s right and duty to go to school in the nine-year compulsory education period. The basic task of schools is to educate people. There are only poor teachers, no bad students,” it added.
Yang junior had written a microblog on September 14, claiming that police had acted improperly after a man committed suicide by jumping from a building two days earlier.
In another post, he said police clashed with people after the man’s death and even beat up the victim’s relatives. Later Yang posted again, saying the building where the suicide took place was a KTV club owned by the deputy chief of the county’s court.
Police said one of Yang’s posts had been retweeted over 500 times, which violated a new regulation effective from September 9. The teenager thus became the first person to be punished for spreading online rumors.
Since he showed remorse for his comments and was still a minor, police let him off lightly and he didn’t face any criminal charges. He was released on September 23.
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