Another kindergarten child abuse case has sparked indignation on social media in China this week. After the Shanghai wasabi case, it now concerns the Honghuanglan (红黄蓝) kindergarten in Beijing’s Chaoyang district (Xintiandi branch).
The kindergarten, also known as the ‘Red Yellow Blue (RYB) Education’ is a large chain of preschools (2-6 year olds) with hundreds of branches across mainland China. According to China Daily, it operates 80 kindergartens directly and has 175 franchises in 130 cities and towns.
The ‘Red Yellow Blue’ kindergarten (photo by Sina).
On November 22, the story became trending on Weibo and WeChat when netizens exposed how more than a dozen parents filed a report at the Chaoyang police station against their children’s kindergarten.
The parents claim their children were fed unclear white pills and had been injected, providing many photos showing needle punctures in their children’s skin in areas on their legs, arms, and buttocks. They suspect that their children have been drugged and molested.
The case began when several parents noticed irregular behavior in their children and then discovered the punctures in their skin. Some parents claim they also found indications of sexual abuse on their child’s body. Some children refused to go to school, others pointed out where they had suffered needle pricks.
Parents shared photos showing punctures in their children’s skin.
Several videos recorded by the parents involved made their ways to parental support groups. One video shows two parents asking their toddler son about a white pill they discovered on him. The little boy then answers “the teacher gave it to me to make me sleep.” He also says: “We have to take these pills every day.” The video was later taken offline.
Other children also told their parents they were fed “white pills” at school. The young pupils said the pills were “not bitter.”
The accusations against the kindergarten made headlines in China on Wednesday and Thursday, but many news reports were pulled offline shortly afterward.
Discussions on social media are also censored. The hashtag “Beijing’s RYB Centre Suspected of Child Abuse’ (#北京红黄蓝涉嫌虐童#) became of the top ten topics on Weibo on Thursday afternoon, but then became inaccessible.
A Beijing Youth Daily journalist reported that on Thursday, November 23, a group of parents gathered at the gate of the kindergarten where a meeting would supposedly be held at the time of writing. Parents demanded to see the center’s surveillance videos, but according to reports that came out around 17.30 Beijing time, the police had already confiscated the footage.
Parents gather at the school gates.
Police in Chaoyang district are currently investigating the parents’ claims that their children were drugged and abused. Three employees of the company have been temporarily suspended from their duties, a company spokesman stated to reporters on Thursday late afternoon outside the kindergarten.
Netizen’s photos show a swarm of reporters and parents outside the kindergarten on Thursday late afternoon.
A mother’s tearful account to reporters.
Several emotional parents spoke to reporters outside the school gates. One mother told reporters that her child had disclosed that teachers had threatened the children not to tell their parents about things occurring at the preschool. They told the young children that they had a “very long telescope” and would be able to watch them, even if they were at home.
“My child is only three-and-a-half years old, and I found needle hole marks on his thighs and buttocks. I am trembling with anger,” one other parent told reporters.
In an interview with another parent, a mother tells about her 3-year-old child’s account of all the children being subjected to naked “health checks” at school by a “grandpa doctor” and “uncle doctor,” who also did not wear any clothes according to the child. Children were allegedly forced to watch one of the pupils being raped (being described as a “piston motion” [活塞运动]) by the “uncle doctor.”
A father stated to journalists that one of the children had been taken to the hospital on November 22 for an examination, and that the doctor found there was trauma to the anus area. “I feel like burning down the school,” the man said.
Also read:
Collective Shock after Exposure of RYB Education Children’s Abuse
WeChat Essay: “The RYB Kindergarten ‘Piston Action’ Child Abuse Case” (Translation)
By Manya Koetse and Miranda Barnes
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