Disturbing incidents of teachers physically assaulting and punishing students are on the rise in China. A boarding school in Huairen County, Shanxi province, is now facing backlash for its harsh punishment of a student who used the bathroom late at night. On September 10, a Form Three student at Yundong Secondary School in Shanxi province used the bathroom at 11:10 pm, violating school rules. An anonymous teacher said that the school had strict rules prohibiting students from walking around the dormitory after 10:45 pm, and surprisingly, even using the toilet was not allowed after this time.

As a consequence, the teenager was forced to write a ”deep self-reflection” letter and to distribute 1,000 photocopies of the essay to his schoolmates as punishment, the South China Morning Post reported. Five points were also deducted from his class’s monthly discipline score. In his self-reflection essay, the student expressed: ”I have seriously breached the school rules, and going to the toilet in the evening not only disturbed other students’ sleep but also brought shame to my class.”

The punishment meted out to the student for using the bathroom after curfew sparked widespread outrage online, with many condemning the school’s actions as excessive and unjust. Some also called the school a ”prison”. Critics argued that the penalty was grossly disproportionate to the offence, taking into account the student’s tender age and the fundamental human need to use the bathroom. Many expressed concerns that such harsh punishment would have a lasting impact on the student’s emotional well-being and self-esteem. 

One user wrote, ”I don’t understand why going to the toilet after 11 pm breaks the school’s rules. Who can control when they need to go?” Another commented, ”This school resembles a prison with such strict regulations.”

In response to the widespread criticism on social media, the Education Department of Huairen department instructed the school to reflect on its errors, revise its discipline policies, and engage with the students in a caring and compassionate manner.

Additionally, the school was ordered to reimburse the student 100 yuan (Rs 1,193) for the costs incurred in copying the self-reflection essay. To prevent similar incidents, officials directed all schools in the region to adopt “reasonable and humane” discipline policies. 

Notably, the worrying trend of student abuse by teachers in China has been persisting despite a government ban on corporal punishment in schools dating back to 1986. Last year, a nine-year-old girl underwent emergency surgery for a severely damaged skull, after a teacher allegedly used a metal ruler to hit her on the head. 

In a shocking incident, a nursery school teacher forced a six-year-old student to eat his vomit on his birthday, as per a report in the South China Morning Post. After the student finished his lunch, the teacher stuffed more food in his mouth. Previously, the boy had thrown up “chunks of pumpkin” after he had too much to eat. 

The incident took place on September 15 at the Maluwan Kindergarten in northeastern China’s Liaoning province. His parents filed a complaint, accusing the teacher of abusing their child. They claimed that their child’s illness resulted from having to consume the pumpkin on a full stomach. They also added that their son, who was dressed in new clothes for the occasion, came home with filthy clothes. They forgot about it until the child told his grandmother that the teacher had forced him to eat more food after having a proper lunch.

As per the outlet, the parents requested to watch the CCTV footage several times after they informed the school about the incident. However, they were not granted access to it until the police intervened. After conducting an inquiry, the local education office confirmed the matter on October 13 on its official WeChat account. It required the teacher to be fired from the institute. They also asked the school to apologise to the parents. Further, they also recommended that the principal overhaul the nursery’s staff structure and the local education office even dropped the school’s ranking.

However, as per SCMP, this is not the first time such incidents have been reported in China. In 2017, a preschool of the RYB Education in the Chaoyang area was the subject of complaints to Beijing police over a teacher who was disciplining the kids with needles. The teacher, whose last name is Liu, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and barred from working with children for five years.

Further, it was reported in August that a kindergarten teacher in northeastern China had both beaten and pulled her students to the ground. One parent said that her child developed a fractured nose and stopped wanting to attend school.