Teacher charged with using needles on young children
A Beijing preschool teacher who was accused of using needles to “discipline” her students has been formally charged, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced on Tuesday.
The teacher — identified only as Liu from Hebei province — was detained in December in the capital’s Chaoyang district after an investigation into alleged child abuse at the Xintiandi branch of RYB Kindergarten.
Parents alerted police in November after finding their children, all around 3 years old, with needle marks on their bodies. The children had also been given unidentified white pills, they said.
The charge came just one day after prosecutors in Shaanxi province charged a suspect with intentional homicide after he used a knife to attack middle school students. Nine of the children died and 10 were hospitalized.
Chinese prosecutors have always taken a zero-tolerance stand against crimes involving child victims, the top procuratorate said on Tuesday.
Zheng Xinjian, director of juvenile cases for the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, said the procuratorate insists on dealing with such cases quickly and hopes the police will continue to be persistent when investigating crimes against children.
According to the procuratorate, 60,300 suspects have been prosecuted since the beginning of 2017 to April this year in connection with crimes against children.
With the rising number of child sexual abuse and trafficking cases in recent years, prosecutors across the country have taken steps to prevent suspects from escaping, Zheng said.
Since last year, prosecutors nationwide have prosecuted 231 people in child abuse cases involving kindergartens.
The preschool where the abuse with needles was reported is part of RYB Education, a publicly listed company.
The allegations prompted a citywide safety inspection of kindergartens in November, and the Beijing Education Commission ordered all institutions to make immediate improvements to reduce risks.
Zheng said that in addition to working with local authorities, the procuratorate will assist other departments with safety checks of kindergartens to help the schools establish a routine safety system.