Chinese police have launched an investigation into alleged child abuse at a Beijing preschool after parents found apparent needle marks on toddlers, sparking new outrage days after a scandal at another daycare.
Distraught and angry parents also reported that children were given unidentified pills at RYB Education New World (紅黃藍) kindergarten, run by a company that started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September.
The Chaoyang District government said police opened an investigation after parents called the authorities on Wednesday to report the suspected abuse.
Photo: Reuters
Authorities declined to provide more details about the allegations.
RYB apologized to parents and said it was cooperating with the police investigation.
“We are currently working with the police to provide relevant surveillance materials and equipment. The teachers in question have been suspended,” the company said in a statement on a Chinese microblogging site.
Furious parents on Thursday gathered outside the school, footage from state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed.
CCTV showed images of apparent needle marks on some children.
Caixin magazine said eight children had such marks and that the incidents occurred in two classes with children aged between two and six.
“I asked my child after I heard what other parents said and my child said that they had taken two white pills after lunch, and slept after eating the pills,” one father told CCTV.
RYB Education directly operates 80 kindergartens and franchised another 175 in 130 cities across China for children ranging from newborns to six-year-olds, according to its NASDAQ listing.
RYB already had to apologize in April and suspended the head of a Beijing kindergarten after admitting that teachers committed “severe mistakes.”
The latest allegations came a week after Chinese online travel agency Ctrip suspended two officials after footage emerged of workers abusing toddlers at a company daycare in Shanghai.
The clips showed young children of Ctrip.com International Ltd's (攜程) employees being roughly handled and force-fed what parents claimed was spicy mustard at the company’s Shanghai headquarters.
Police detained three daycare staff for suspected abuse.
The RYB case triggered a new bout of outrage on Chinese social media.
“From Ctrip to RYB, what future do we have if we can’t even protect children, let alone the so-called Chinese dream,” one microblog user wrote, referring to the slogan used by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to call for a rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Another called for cameras to be placed inside every kindergarten classroom, saying: “It’s not just this one kindergarten that has a problem.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in