Teacher Pulls Student's Hair For Talking In Class; Child Left With Severe Internal Bleeding

A primary school teacher in China has been arrested for allegedly pulling the hair of a 9-year-old boy as a punishment for talking in class.

The accused teacher, identified by his surname Chang, was arrested last week, according to reports from local media outlets.

The victim, identified by his surname Yuan, was left with severe internal bleeding and swelling after the incident. The boy’s scalp and skull reportedly got separated in the violent assault and the bleeding filled part of his brain.

The doctors had to perform seven separate surgical procedures to drain more than a liter of blood that had accumulated in his brain, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The incident happened on March 5 at Xinhua Road Elementary School in Pingdingshan, Henan province of China. Chang reportedly spotted Yuan, a grade three student, talking to two of his classmates. He allegedly punished the boys by pulling them from their seats by their hair and dragging them to the front of the class.

“My son’s hair is short. When the teacher pulled his hair for the first time, my boy stepped back. The teacher, perhaps thinking he was resisting, then pulled his hair again,” the boy’s mother said.

The boy reportedly felt dizzy and had nausea after returning home in the evening. The following morning, the boy’s mother noticed that his scalp was swollen and sore. The victim’s mother then confronted the teacher who reportedly admitted to the use of physical punishment.

Two days later, the boy’s mother took him to a hospital as the swelling began to cover half of his head. Medical examination revealed that the swelling was caused by severe internal bleeding.

The victim had to undergo three weeks of treatment at the hospital. The child, who is currently recovering at his home, still suffers from scalp pain and needs to go to the hospital regularly for checkups, Global Times said in a report.

The incident has left the boy in serious trauma. “It has left him a shadow in his mind. He is afraid of the teacher [Chang] and fears going to school,” his mother said.

The mother also accused the school of not taking appropriate action immediately. “The school said it was the teacher’s individual behavior and it had no responsibility here. The school suspended him from teaching only about 20 days later,” she explained.

The victim's mother said she would press charges against the school and the teacher, SCMP reported, citing Red Star News.

However, the school’s vice-principal recently revealed that it had reported the incident to the local education bureau but did not disclose the specific measures taken in connection with the incident.