Tougher laws against child abuse urged
China had always been a peasant society. People lived in small villages where everyone knew each other. Confucianism was the way of life. The young were expected to respect the old. In return the old were supposed to take care of the young. Our parents knew our teachers, because they probably grew up together. Times have changed. China is has industrialised, and urbanised. Not only that, but Chinese culture is slowly disappearing, with the arrival of western individual ideas replacing them. The new generation does not know what virtues are. We have no clue who our children's teachers are. It comes as no surprise that Zhejiang is one of the most westernised provinces in China, where a high profile child abuse case just occurred. This is why some lawers are calling for new laws to match the changed times. It used to be that if someone in China saw something was wrong, he would speak up. Those times are gone. Like in Hong Kong, and Taiwan, people in the mainland now just mind their own business, even if they see something unjust happening. Back in the day, everyone played by the same rules. We now live in a westernised world, where there are no set of rules that society plays by. Morals, and standards have been replaced by western "individualism", where anything goes. The Chinese had always preferred to educate people into behaving themselves, whereas the west encourages freedom, and then heavy punishments if the individual is caught breaking the norm. It used to be that the community, and traditional Chinese values kept people in line, and held them accountable for their actions. Now it appears the "rule of law" will have to play that role.
Legal and education experts are calling for the Criminal Law to be revised to include the offense of child abuse after a number of incidents in which minors were physically or sexually abused have come to light.
In one notorious recent case, Yan Yanhong, an uncertified teacher at a privately owned kindergarten in East China's Zhejiang province, posted a photo online of her picking a boy up by his ears.
The child appeared to be shouting in the photo and seemed to be in great pain.
The police later found more than 700 photos in Yan's e-album of children being abused in different manners, including being thrown into garbage cans or having their mouths sealed with plastic tape.
Yan was detained by the police last week.
Under current law, prosecutors can charge her only with "picking fights and provoking trouble", the normal charge when someone assaults a person and provokes and causes public disorder, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Cai Liming, director of the judicial department of the public security bureau in Wenling, the city where the incident took place, said that charge was filed because Yan could not be charged with the crimes of abuse, causing intentional injury or insult.
"The crime of abuse pertains to someone who abuses a family member, but the kindergarten teacher is not a family member of the children," he said.
"The crime of intentional injury deals with cases in which someone was physically injured, and the child was not injured to a degree that would justify that charge," he said.
"An insult charge requires that the offended person sues the offender, and the child cannot sue because he was not an adult."
The charge of picking fights and provoking trouble is based on the fact that the teacher ignored social ethics when she attacked the children, he said.
Yao Jianlong, a legal expert at East China University of Political Science and Law and an advocate of better legal protection for children, said that current criminal law does not specify the punishment in child-abuse cases, and most offenders will be exempt from punishment unless the abuse caused grave injury or death.
Although many laws and even the Constitution have forbidden the abuse of children, there are no clear definitions of abuse and the punishment is too lenient, he said.
Experts are also calling for more severe punishment of preschool teachers who abuse children.
"Memories of abuse will have a negative effect on a child's development," said Hou Juanzhen, vice-president of Yuncheng Preschool Educators' College in Shanxi province. "Lots of criminals were abused as children."
Hou said that many training institutions attach great importance to preschool educators' teaching abilities, but not enough to ethics issues.
"The training of preschool teachers is very market-oriented. Kindergartens want to hire teachers with better teaching skills and often ignore their ethics," she said.
A young kindergarten teacher who triggered public outcry by posting pictures on the Internet to show off her cruelty against children was detained this noon by police in Wenling, city of eastern Zhejiang Province.
Photos expose child abuse history[Internet photo]
The 20-year-old Yan Yanhong was seen on a picture smiling by a crying boy who was lifted in his ears to about 10 centimeters above the ground. Other pictures showed children were sealed off with tapes in mouth, thrown in litter bin and stripped off when dancing and were ordered to kiss each other.
Along with the pictures, she wrote: "It's fine!" In interviews with local media, she said "I just played with them at that time" and "It was of great fun. The picture was so interesting!"
Her violence soon sparked an online human flesh search and furious netizens found she didn't have teacher license and was previously employed by Lankongque Kindergarten in Chengxi community.
Yan and another female teacher who didn't stop her but documented her brutal acts were immediately sacked from their positions by local authorities. The kindergarten was also ordered to apologize to the victims and failed to pass this year's evaluation, said Wu Guojian, official with Chengxi community, according to local TV station.
The news also led to a police investigation. She was detained for stirring up troubles and her colleague was punished with a seven-day administrative detention, local police said this noon on official microblog on Weibo.com.
Photos expose child abuse history[Internet photo]
SOURCE: CHINA.ORG.CN
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