Kindergarten abuses prompt calls for new legislation

Lawyers and members of the public have demanded new child abuse provisions be added to China's criminal code as police in Wenling, Zhejiang Province applied Monday to arrest a child-abusing kindergarten teacher using the charge "provoking a disturbance."

Local police, who placed the teacher in custody on Thursday last week, submitted the arrest application to the People's Procuratorate of Wenling on Monday, Chen, a police officer, told the Global Times.

Yan Yanhong, the 21-year-old teacher, triggered public outrage after pictures were circulated online showing her lifting a boy called "Jiangjiang" by his ears in the air, with the teacher smiling but the boy seeming tobe crying in agony.

Her personal blog contained other photos showing her mistreating children, including pictures of her taping a child's mouth shut, putting pupils in trash bins and stripping off their pants while they were dancing, as well as images of the children being forced to kiss each other.

Yan has been detained and the private kindergarten she worked for has been shut down, with the principal being removed, Xinhua reported.

Jiangjiang's mother said that she had never imagined the teacher could treat her son like that. But she was afraid to report the abuse then because she thought Yan would treat Jiangjiang even worse, CCTV reported.

The existing Criminal Law does not include a specific "child abuse" law. The closest item for Yan's offense is "provocative and disturbing behavior," which is punishable with a maximum of five years in prison.

The other related crime of "insulting" someone's dignity and damaging their reputation via violence or other means, has a sentence of up to three years in prison, and the victims need to file a lawsuit before the suspect can be charged. The crime of "abuse" only applies to family members, and doesn't specifically need to be from an adult to a child.

According to Xinhua, usually, those suspected of child abuse in kindergartens are put under administrative detention for up to 15 days. This means they will not face criminal charges.

Outraged Web users said online that the legal penalty that the abuser is likely to face is not sufficient, as similar offenders in other countries could face life in jail. Experts pointed out that the case has exposed a large blind spot in China's legislation regarding the mistreatment of children.

"A special crime must be added to the criminal law, that is, the crime of mistreating minors," Zhao Bingzhi, dean of the Law School at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times. "Instances of the abuse of children outside the family setting are no longer a series of isolated cases, but a phenomenon within society."

Hong Daode, a criminal law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, agreed that the country should strengthen the protection of minors who are victims of crime.

"The first step is to set up a special item in future legislation to protect minors, and the second is to add items to the current criminal charges, stating that if the victims are minors, the offenders should be punished more heavily," Hong said.

The case in Wenling represents only one of a series of recent child abuse cases in kindergartens or schools. Two other cases caught national attention in Wuhan, Hubei Province on Friday and Taiyuan, Shanxi Province on October 15.

"Parents in China respect teachers, and are often tolerant when it comes to physical punishment for their kids, but it's time for them to raise their level of awareness and protect their children," Wang Hongcai, an education professor at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.