Boy brutally beaten at education camp

• Source: Global Times
• [01:29 August 19 2009]
• Comments

By Song Shengxia

Deng Senshan, a 15-year-old native of Ziyuan in Guilin City, was found dead on Aug. 2 ten hours after he entered the Nanning-based Qihang Salvation Training Camp. He was sent to the camp one day before to get rid of his Internet addiction. (gxnews.com.cn)

Less than two weeks after a boy was beaten to death at an “Internet-addiction treatment” camp in Guangxi, another teenager in Sichuan Province is in critical condition after allegedly being beaten by the principal of an “alternative education” camp for school dropouts and troubled students.

Pu Liang, 14, was diagnosed with conjunctival hemorrhage in his left eye, broken chest bones and kidney malfunction, according to a Chengdu West District Hospital medical report provided by the boy’s mother, Li Shubing.

The boy was transferred to the Huaxi No. 2 Hospital and began receiving dialysis treatment Monday, Li told the Global Times yesterday.

The 27-year-old principal, Tang Jingcheng, was detained August 8 for the suspected crime of inflicting intentional injury, according to an officer at Jiqing Police Station of Zhongjiang County, Sichuan Province.

“The Zhongjiang camp has been shut down, and the case has been transferred to the Zhongjiang Public Security Bureau for further investigation,” the officer, Guan Bing, told the Global Times.

Wether Tang will be formally arrested depends on result of the boy’s injury assessment report, he said.

The Zhongjiang Public Security Bureau declined to comment.

According to Li, who returned from the police bureau and the camp last night to press for compensation, the bureau issued a forensic-test report that says her son is only mildly injured and asked Tang to compensate her only 200 yuan ($29).

The “alternative education” camp, known as the “China Non-traditional Versatile Education Training Center,” was founded in Chengdu three years ago by Wu Yongjing.

The camp made its name after state television station CCTV carried a report last year profiling the alternative training provided.

At Zhongjiang camp, school dropouts and problem students were trained to correct their bad behavior and become “versatile” youths, Wu, 45, told the Global Times.

The youngsters were required to cook meals, clean rooms, help farmers in their duties and engage in physical work, to teach them how to live an independent life.

The boy was beaten up after he attempted to escape from the camp because he could not bear the arduous training, Wu said.

Wu said he sold the center to Tang in January because he found it “increasingly hard to cope with public pressure.”

“My efforts were not recognized by society, and I was constantly threatened by parents and students who couldn’t accept my education method, so I sold the camp,” Wu said.

Pu, a sixth-grade dropout, was sent to the camp August 4 by his parents, who paid 5,000 yuan ($732) to get their son back to school. They were shocked to find he had been beaten and suffered fractures.

“My son’s nose is still bleeding, and his high fever persisits,“ Li said.

The incident emerged after a college student, who had volunteered to live at the camp to “experience life,” drowned in a river while playing with his campmates. Tang said it was an accident.

Police who investigated the drowning later discovered Pu was brutally beaten by the camp principal and detained Tang for further questioning.

“Our method was tough, but we never resorted to torture, and the center under my administration never had such problems,” Wu said.