School heads condemn suicide taunt as employers ‘vow never to hire’ Education University students
Another poster making light of the dead, this time mainland dissident and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, appears on campus
Hundreds of school principals have condemned the taunting of a top education official over the suicide of her eldest son, amid signs of a backlash by prospective employers against students from the university at the centre of the storm.
By Saturday night, schools had rejected 10 internships for Education University undergraduates as other employers threatened to never hire its graduates, said the student union president, quoting a university staff member at a meeting with union representatives. Students must complete internships before they can graduate.
The university received 1,700 signatures from various groups, including 524 school principals, voicing their disapproval over the message, which “congratulated” Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin on the suicide of her 25-year-old son.
The identity of the culprits, and whether they even go to EdU, was still unknown.
Four student unions demand dialogue with Chinese University officials in six-hour stand-off over Hong Kong independence posters
The furore, however, did not stop a similar message being put up at another institution, City University, and another poster – this time in simplified, rather than traditional, Chinese – appearing at EdU “congratulating” late Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo for dying and his wife Liu Xia for being under house arrest.