Officials sacked over suicide of four abandoned children who drank pesticide
Local government staff, educators punished over deaths of four children left at home alone, as media debate why they killed themselves
A number of local officials have been punished in the case of four siblings who killed themselves by drinking pesticide in impoverished Guizhou province.
Three officials, including the education bureau director of Bijie’s Qixingguan district, were suspended for investigation, while two village officials, including its party secretary, were removed from office, the district government said on Friday
Six others, including the principal and a teacher from the primary school where three of the children studied, have been punished, it added.
The decision was announced after Premier Li Keqiang instructed local officials to take the work of government social services seriously to avoid similar tragedies. Any official who failed to fulfil his duties would be held accountable, he said.
The tragedy has renewed concerns on the mainland over migrant workers’ offspring, known as “left-behind children”. Mainland media have argued that parental neglect, rather than dire poverty, was to blame for the siblings’ suicides.
Police investigations showed the four children – a brother and three younger sisters, aged between five and 13 – swallowed pesticide in their three-storey house in Bijie’s Cizu village, the local government said. The four died in hospital.
Investigators found a suicide note penned by the brother, CCTV reported.