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It took seven operations to remove the blood that had accumulated in the child’s brain after the incident. Photo: Handout

School teacher in China arrested after alleged hair pulling punishment scalped child and left him with internal bleeding

  • Student was being punished after talking in class in incident that left him with swelling and bleeding in his brain
  • Doctors had to remove a litre of blood from the boy’s brain after his mother took him to hospital

A primary school teacher in central China has been arrested for allegedly pulling the hair of a nine-year-old boy so hard the child’s skull was partially scalped and left him with severe internal bleeding and swelling.

The teacher, surnamed Chang, violently pulled the boy’s hair after noticing him talking in class, news platform thecover.cn reported.

Police in Pingdingshan in Henan province placed Chang in detention last Saturday, the report said. Doctors said the boy’s scalp and skull were separated in the incident and that the bleeding had filled part of his brain. More than 1 litre of blood was drawn out of his brain using syringes in seven separate surgical procedures.

The incident occurred on March 5 at Xinhua Road Elementary School. When Chang found the boy, a grade-three pupil surnamed Yuan, and two of his classmates talking in his class, he punished them by dragging them from their seats by their hair to the front of the class.

Kindergarten teacher sacked for forcing child to smell his feet during class

“My son’s hair is short. When the teacher pulled his hair for the first time, my boy stepped back. The teacher, perhaps thinking he was resisting, then pulled his hair again,” the boy’s mother said.

“That evening, my son felt dizzy and had nausea. He told me what happened to him at school,” the mother, also surnamed Yuan, said.

The teacher alleged to have caused the injury offered compensation, but the child’s mother has refused and intends to sue. Photo: Handout

The next day, she found the boy’s scalp swollen and sore. She called the boy’s form teacher who admitted to the use of physical violence.

By March 7, the swelling had spread to cover half of the boy’s head. His mother took him to hospital the following day, which revealed the swelling was caused by internal bleeding. The boy developed a fever after leaving the hospital.

“The medical bills were paid by the teacher. He said he felt regret and guilt. He hoped we would forgive him. But I can’t forgive him,” said Yuan.

The boy was discharged from hospital following three weeks of treatment. Yuan said he still feels pain in his scalp, especially during haircuts.

“It has left him a shadow in his mind. He is afraid of the teacher [Chang] and fears going to school … I am thinking of transferring him to another school,” Yuan said. “He hasn’t gone to school since March. This semester has been wasted for my son. I might send him to study at grade three again [from next semester].”

The mother accused the school of not taking the case seriously at first. “The school said it was the teacher’s individual behaviour and it had no responsibility here. The school suspended him from teaching only about 20 days later,” Yuan said.

Yuan told news site Red Star News that she would sue the school and the teacher.

She said she had turned down a proposal made by Chang who said in a document that he wanted to pay financial compensation to the boy.

Doctors had to remove more than 1 litre of blood from the boy’s brain using syringes. Photo: Handout

A vice-headmaster of the school, only identified with her surname Zhang, told thecover.cn: “Only the upper-level authorities have the final say of whether the school has responsibility or not”.

China has banned teachers from using corporal punishment against students. But in practice, it is not uncommon that teachers resort to violence to discipline students.

Earlier this month a kindergarten in Linyi, Shandong province, was closed after video footage of a teacher slapping several children in the toilet was released online. Local police have launched an investigation, qq.com reported.

Last month a kindergarten teacher in southeastern China was sacked and detained after making one of his students smell his foot in a video that was leaked online.
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