Kindergarten teacher sacked for posting pictures of young boy forced to smell his feet
- The teacher forced the kid to smell his feet after the child had called them smelly
- Police placed him in an emergency seven-day detention and the government said he needs to be fired
The teacher, identified by his surname Liu, said he was “cultivating [masochism] from childhood” and described the punishment as a form of training. Under this logic, the teacher would be “training” the boy to understand masochism, which means “deriving pleasure from one’s own humiliation”.
In two separate comments, Liu wrote, “do smell, smell carefully” and “have blocked parents and teachers”.
He shared three photos on WeChat of the boy holding his sock-adorned foot with both hands while pressing his nose against the sole. He made the masochism comments under the post, which was blocked from parents and teachers.
But, a WeChat contact of Liu screen-grabbed his post and shared it on Weibo, China’s twitter-like platform, and publicly denounced Liu’s actions before calling the police.
According to an investigation from the education department, the incident happened after the man took off his shoes before taking the children to a play area on Monday. The child in the photographs said that his feet were smelly. Liu then smelled them himself before making the kid do the same and taking the pictures.