Pitfalls of an unfettered net

Unfounded charges by netizens and irresponsible media reports push a premier technical training school to the brink of disaster

Shandong Lanxiang Senior Technical School has been known for years as one of China's largest vocational training bases for skilled workers, helped partly by its catchy promotion line: "One can turn to Shandong's Lanxiang for China's best excavator technology."

But the private training school and its headmaster, Rong Lanxiang, are now in the eye of a public storm because of a series of events, from allegedly organizing a "trans-provincial fighting group" and teachers beating up students who want to drop out of school to Rong holding three identity cards (as revealed by his wife during their pursuit for divorce), having six children, inflicting violence on his wife for 20 years and building a huge "gray-profit" empire.