China boarding school criticised for harsh punishment of pupil for using toilet late at night
School has strict curfew, teenager caught using toilet at 11pm
A boarding school in northern China faced reprimand from the local education authority after punishing a student for using the toilet after curfew.
The teenage boy, a Form Three student at Yundong Secondary School in Shanxi province, went to the bathroom at 11pm, which was 15 minutes past curfew, and was caught by staff members.
As reported by Beijing News, administrators forced the boy to write a “deep self-reflection” letter and to distribute 1,000 photocopies of the essay to his schoolmates as punishment. Additionally, five points were deducted from his class’s monthly discipline score.
An anonymous teacher informed the news outlet that, before the authorities’ reprimand, students were prohibited from walking around the dormitory after 10.45pm, and using the toilet was not permitted.
Students who needed to use the bathroom after curfew were required to reach out to dorm administrators for permission.
In his self-reflection essay, the student expressed: “I have seriously breached the school rules, and going to the toilet in the evening not only disturbed other students’ sleep but also brought shame to my class.”
