A high school teacher in China has earned the ire of Chinese netizens after getting caught on video beating his eight students.
The video featured the teacher from the Gansu province hitting both male and female students repeatedly with random objects. The incident occurred at a high school in Longnan, Gansu at 9 a.m. on June 26, Sina reported (via Shanghaiist).
The allegedly intoxicated teacher, identified only by his surname Wang, reportedly got angry at the students for being late and noisy. The Ministry of Education, which is currently investigating the incident, has temporarily suspended Wang.
The victims were sent to a nearby hospital for a checkup and were found to have not sustained any serious injuries, according to a school spokesperson.
Wang has since apologized to the students’ parents and is said to be looking forward for the students’ return to school after being discharged from the hospital.
Comments by netizens on Chinese social media site Weibo expressed sympathy for the students and anger toward Wang.
“Even if the teacher has a hard time, it doesn’t mean that he can torture students like this,” said one netizen.
“The teacher doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. As a teacher, how could he be drunk while he’s teaching? That’s not how a teacher should be,” another comment read.
“I feel sorry for those students who had to endure such beatings,” said another netizen.
Beatings by schoolteachers in China are still common in rural areas despite school corporal punishment being banned in China in 1949 following the communist revolution. The Chinese Compulsory Education Law of 1986 states: “It shall be forbidden to inflict physical punishment on students.”
