‘Is your family poor?’: Chinese teacher under probe after filming pupils without required stationery and shaming them in parent chat group
- In the video, several children are seen standing next to desks while teacher launches her tirade
- It was not known if instructor had recorded video with intention of sending it to parent-teacher chat group or was an afterthought
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A primary school teacher in China who recorded a video in which she shamed and berated pupils who did not have triangular rulers has shocked parents, according to news reports.
The video has since gone viral on mainland social media.
After recording the clip, the unidentified teacher, who works at Shenyang Dongzhan Primary School in northeastern China’s Liaoning province, sent it to a parent-teacher WeChat group on September 18 to express her displeasure, Shangyou News reported.
In the video, several children are seen standing next to their desks, while others remain seated. The teacher then launches her tirade.
“The pupils who were asked to stand up do not have triangular rulers,” the teacher is heard saying in the video. “Is your family poor, or do your parents not care?” she asks the students who have been singled out.
It was not clear when the pupils had been asked to bring the triangular rulers – known as set squares – to class, but the teacher said much time had passed since she told the class to do so.
The class remained quiet as the teacher continued her rebuke.
“You have to use it for drawing,” she insisted.
It was not known if the instructor had recorded the video with the intention of sending it to the parent-teacher WeChat group, or if it was an afterthought.
While the parents were reported to be outraged, the details of their reactions have not been disclosed.
The parents, who have taken the incident to the school administration, were the ones who first posted the video clip online.
“The teacher certainly acted improperly,” an unnamed school staff member told Shangyou News.
The school administration promised to investigate the incident and discipline the teacher if her actions were found to be inappropriate.
At the time of writing, the video news report had received 36,000 comments on Douyin, with many people agreeing that the teacher was rude and out of line.
“Oh no, is it a teacher?” asked one person.
“Obviously, the teacher personally abused the pupils and their families,” said another commenter.
Still, a few online observers supported the teacher.
“I don’t think the teacher is wrong. Why do other pupils have triangular rulers?” asked one person.
“Nowadays it is too difficult to be a teacher,” said another.
Stories about teachers behaving inappropriately often astonish mainland social media.
Earlier this month, a nine-year-old girl in central China required five hours of emergency surgery to remove bone fragments in her head after her teacher beat her with a ruler. The teacher was detained by police after the incident, which outraged millions online.
In July, reports about a private school teacher in eastern China who abused students and forced them to slap, spit and humiliate each other for years, also horrified China’s online world.
