School Slammed for Family Background Checks

An elementary school in Yuanping, Shanxi Province has drawn ire for doing background checks on students’ families and classifying their parents into groups. A photo included in media reports showed the 11 classifications including officials, businesspeople, those who have divorced, non-locals and those who had committed crimes. The school defended the investigation as a means to provide better care for children of impoverished families and parents working far from home in other cities. Social media users did not buy the explanation, saying the school was engaging in discrimination. Amid the public criticism, the local education bureau punished the teachers involved and the school’s principal.