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Photos of teens group beating stir netizen uproar

By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-13 09:01

Photos posted on an online forum showing a group of teens viciously kicking a schoolmate at Xifei No 2 Middle School in Shanxi province. [Chinese Business View]

Photographs posted on an online forum showing a group of teens viciously kicking a schoolmate in a middle school classroom in Shaanxi province has ramped up the pressure on that school to quiet down the anger of netizens.

The attack, captured in 22 photographs taken at Xifei No 2 Middle School, were uploaded by a netizen named "gzjamm." They show a boy named Xiao Shi, who is wearing a school uniform, being kicked in the head by another boy. After Xiao Shi fell to the ground and appeared to try to get up, two other classmates kicked him on the head and on the buttocks, the photos show.

"Those photos are not fake, and the violence did happen to my classmate," wrote a girl on the website, according to local newspaper on Monday.

Six classmates were involved in the incident, including a girl who took photographs of the action for fun, according to the school's investigation.

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The girl who took the photographs confessed that she asked her schoolmates involved in the incident to make exaggerated poses, said Zhong Yarong, the students' teacher.

The violence happened around Sep 20, and Zhong has urged the six students to apologize to Xiao Shi, who is a "slow" student, according to Zhong.

"I was shocked when I saw the photos on Oct 10, and I never imagined it was so viciously violent," Zhong was quoted as saying in a local media report yesterday.

"I thought it was only a normal quarrel among the teens, because students had said they were only making jokes with Xiao Shi for fun," the teacher said.

"Xiao Shi didn't speak too much that day, but I didn't know that he was hurt," the teacher said.

The school contacted the students' parents and is giving the students disciplinary punishment, said vice-headmaster Zhou Li.

One of the students involved in the incident said Xiao Shi had quarreled with one of his friends that morning.

"So we decided to punish him," said Hua Hua. "I thought it was cool to take the pictures. It was just like I was playing gun battles in online computer games," he said.

Le Le, Xiao Shi's 13-year-old classmate, said the "violent game" lasted for only 10 minutes.

"I just made some poses for the camera," he said.