On March 24, 2024, a video of multiple students being beaten at school at the Central Kindergarten in Ligu Township, Yucheng County, Shangqiu, Henan Province, quickly spread online. In the video, a teacher repeatedly hit the child's head and face with both hands, and asked the boy to kneel and kowtow. At the same time, two teachers were laughing and holding their mobile phones to take pictures. The three teachers involved, the oldest 16 years old and the youngest 14 years old, all dropped out of school and stayed at home.
In April, as the weather warms up and the wheat has grown to calf height, a 3-meter-wide trail stretches from National Highway 310 to both sides, passing through patches of green wheat fields to villages in Ligu Township, Yucheng County, Shangqiu City, Henan Province. Zhang Sanlou Village is one of them. The village has a population of several thousand, and most of the young people are working outside the village. Walking along the village road, you can see old people sitting at the door resting and chatting, and occasionally the sound of children playing.
Zhenligu Township (photo by Chen Yinxia)
Liang Jun's house is in the west of the village. When our reporter arrived, he was immersed in the kitchen chopping vegetables. He is very thin, dark-skinned, more than 1.75 meters tall, and looks about 30 years old. His mother was on the sidelines. The kitchen is only four or five square meters, and the floor of the kitchen is dirt, which is black and shiny after years of trampling. There was a firewood fire in front of a low earthen stove in the innermost part, a gas stove by the door, and pots and pans on two old wooden tables. A plate of stir-fried cabbage with sliced meat and a plate of stir-fried spinach are dinner dishes for a family of six. Liang Jun's mother said that she grew the spinach and shallots, and only the cabbage was bought.
Liang Jun rushed home from a part-time job in Shandong more than half a month ago because his son was beaten by a teacher in kindergarten. The videos, which were widely circulated on the Internet, were first posted to the parent group. In the video, a little boy wearing black pants and a khaki jacket is forced into a corner by a female teacher, who keeps hitting him on the head and face with both hands, and tries to rip off the boy's pants. The boy clutched his pants with both hands, crying and begging for mercy, while the teacher slapped him in the face. In another video, the boy is forced to kneel and kowtow to apologize by the teacher. In the video, there are other children who were beaten.
The boy who was forced to kneel was Liang Jun's eldest son, who was only 6 years old and attended a large class at the Guxiang Central Kindergarten in the township. After the incident, Liang Jun's mother posted on the Internet that this was not the first time the child had been beaten by the teacher, "The child has told me several times, and I haven't taken it too seriously." I warned the teacher that I would report you if I did it again, and she said she knew, so I didn't call the police. Now that I think about it, Liang Jun's mother blames herself and feels distressed. She has two sons, her son and daughter-in-law are all working outside, and her four grandchildren are all raised by her, and she is usually reluctant to touch them. "When the child is a few months old, I hold it and feed it," she says, gesturing with her hand to the size of the baby.
Liang Jun's mother was hunched over, with gray hair, and she looked overworked. In addition to taking care of their children, she and her husband also farm ten acres of land, harvest one season of corn and one season of wheat every year, and their annual income is only more than 10,000 yuan, which is not enough for living expenses. Usually her husband goes to a nearby village to help people build houses, and she herself goes to work in the greenhouse, picking watermelons for people, 8 hours a day, and only earns 60 yuan. Liang Jun's mother told this magazine that there are several kindergartens in the town, and they chose this one because there is a school bus every day, and lunch and breakfast are included, so it does not affect their farm work and odd jobs.
Kindergarten with a shortage of teachers
Zhenligu Township Central Kindergarten is located on Zhenligu Township Street, is a private kindergarten, only 700 meters away from the township government, the school gate is made into a crescent-shaped arch, the walls are painted colorful, and it looks very vibrant. Zhang Liang, a village cadre in Zhenligu Township, told this magazine that there are six or seven kindergartens in Zhenligu Township, two of which are private kindergartens, and the Zhenligu Township Central Kindergarten was founded in 2014 by a local bus driver and the director is his wife.
Zhang Liang said that when the Guxiang Central Kindergarten was first established, the enrollment was not good, and the school only had six or seven rooms, cement floors, and large white walls, which was very simple. There are few students and only a few teachers. But over the past few years, the kindergarten has slowly accumulated fame, "public kindergartens do not teach cultural classes, more to take children to sing, dance, play, parents do not want their children to go, afraid that children will not be able to keep up after the first grade." ”
Wang Jianguo, a villager in Zaoziying Village, told this magazine that his nephew's child was also beaten when he attended a kindergarten in the central kindergarten of Guxiang Township. Wang Jianguo said that before the accident, parents in nearby villages thought it was a "good school" - the school culture class was tightly grasped, and the middle class of other schools only learned addition and subtraction within 10, but they had already learned within 20. Wang Jianguo said that parents hope that their children will not lose to others at the starting point. Wang Jianguo is a bath worker, 5 yuan for a bath, his nephew only went to junior high school, worked as a waiter, sold fruits, opened a fast food restaurant, and now works as a welder in Shandong.
With the advantages of "teaching", the scale of the central kindergarten in Zhenligu Township continues to expand. Six or seven years ago, the school expanded its teaching building to an area of six or seven hundred square meters, covered the yard with blue-green cushions, and purchased a school bus. Before the accident, Wang Jianguo's grandson was also studying in the kindergarten. Wang Jianguo told this magazine that there are three or four classes in the central kindergarten of Guxiang Township in the town every year, with twenty or thirty students in one class, and the total number of students is several hundred, while in other kindergartens, some students have a total of only a few dozen. Wang Jianguo said that after the accident, the village counted the list of transfer schools, and he saw that there were 20 or 30 children in the village studying in the central kindergarten of Guxiang Township.
The girl who beat people in the video is called Li Shuang, a native of Liutun Village, Ligu Township, Zhenli, and she went to work in the Central Kindergarten of Guxiang Township in Zhenli Township three months ago, and she is only 16 years old. The two girls who helped shoot the video, one named Wang Mengmeng and the other Chen Yuxuan, aged 14 and 15, are both from nearby villages. Zhang Liang told this magazine that the salary of kindergarten teachers in Guxiang Township is only more than 1,000 yuan, and it is rare to recruit teachers with kindergarten teacher certificates, and many kindergarten teachers are mothers who are at home with children or minors who have dropped out of school, and the turnover is large, many people leave after two or three months, and the kindergarten is always short of people. "As long as there is a shortage of people, even if you are not an adult, the kindergarten will want you. ”
Girls who dropped out of school
Before going to work in the central kindergarten of Guxiang Township, Li Shuang had dropped out of school for a while. Sun Ming, a villager from the same village as him, told this magazine that Li Shuang was expelled from the township junior high school last year because of a fight, "She and the other two girls both fell in love with a boy, and the boy was unwilling, so they beat him together." Zhao Yunhan is Li Shuang's junior high school classmate, she told this magazine that Li Shuang is the "eldest sister" in the class, and most of the girls "listen to her", if anyone is disobedient, Li Shuang will scold, and will unite others to "isolate" each other. Zhao Yunhan and Li Shuang live in the same bedroom, in order to please Li Shuang, Zhao Yunhan will fetch water for Li Shuang, fold quilts, and help Li Shuang pour dishes when eating.
Chen Yuxuan's village, the village is quiet (photo by Chen Yinxia)
Sun Ming said that Li Shuang was brought up by her grandmother, and her parents worked outside all the year round, and they spent no more than half a month at home every year. Zhang Liang said that it is not easy for parents in rural areas. There are not many fields in the village, with an average of one and a half acres of land per person, and a total of seven or eight acres of land for a family. Zhang Liang calculated that he could harvest 1,200 catties of wheat per acre of land, one yuan per catty, and only about 700 yuan was left after plowing the cultivated land, sowing, harvesting, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. In recent years, because of heavy rains or floods, planting land every year can only save the capital, "In autumn, when the corn is half a meter high or one meter high, it will either be flooded, or it will rain for a month." "In order to survive and raise children, the younger villagers have to go out to work, and the elderly are left behind to farm.
Li Shuang's grandmother is 55 years old this year, in addition to farming, she has set up a few tables of mahjong at home, and people in the village often come to play small cards, and she can also make some money. In the eyes of the villagers, Li Shuang's grandmother has a strong personality and is the head of the family, "her mother's brothers and sisters-in-law all listen to her", they feel that Li Shuang has inherited her grandmother's strength. Sun Ming feels that Li Shuang's personality is also related to the lack of discipline, grandparents will be next generation and more pampered to their children, "Like when I see my son glaring at my grandson, I feel distressed." ”
Stills from "Little Client".
When Li Shuang beat the child, it was Wang Mengmeng and Chen Yuxuan who were smiling and shooting videos on the side. Wu Bing, 15, a friend of Chen Yuxuan, said that two years ago, he met Li Shuang and Chen Yuxuan through a friend who "mixed society". He remembers that Chen Yuxuan smoked a lot, "one or two packs a day". Chen Yuxuan's grandmother told this magazine that her granddaughter dropped out of school last year. She first followed her grandmother to help people look at the peach orchard, but she didn't go soon because it was too hot, and then she went to the supermarket to sell vegetables to people, and she left after less than a month.
Chen Yuxuan has three siblings, the elder sister is 18 years old, and the younger brother is 8 years old, their father works outside the home, and Chen Yuxuan's mother teaches in the village primary school, but has not had time to take care of the children. Chen Yuxuan's grandmother told this magazine that her daughter-in-law usually has to go to the village elementary school to attend classes, and after work, she has to run to her mother's house in a nearby village for some time. "Her father has died, her mother has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and she has to go back to cooking and going to class after eating. Grandma said that a few years ago, her daughter-in-law's younger brother was in a car accident and became disabled, and her daughter-in-law left. Chen Yuxuan's grandmother remembered that Chen Yuxuan's grandmother was hospitalized last year, and her daughter-in-law had been taking care of her in the hospital, and the chickens and geese at home were starving to death.
Firewood piled up in front of Chen Yuxuan's house (photo by Chen Yinxia)
Zhang Liang told this magazine that the older children in the village who drop out of school will generally be taken out by their parents to work, and the younger ones may be reluctant to stay at home and wait for suitable job opportunities. Zhang Liang said that in recent years, many parents in the village have not paid as much attention to education as before, "Now it is difficult for college students to find jobs, and the monthly salary is two or three thousand yuan, so it is better to work or learn technology, and their children are not allowed to study if they don't want to study." ”
Half a month after the incident, our reporter came to the kindergarten involved, and the turmoil seemed to have completely subsided. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the kindergarten was already out, the doors were closed, there was no sound, and eighty percent of the shops on the street were locked, looking very deserted. Locals told reporters that after the incident, the Yucheng County Education and Sports Bureau carried out education and rectification of the central kindergarten in Ligu Township, suspended the principal, and expelled the three girls involved. Chen Yuxuan's grandmother said that she had not seen her granddaughter since the accident, and she did not know where she had gone or what she was doing.