Principal beats student, makes her sign confession

A principal who reportedly beat and forced a female student to sign a confession about an inappropriate relationship with a male student has been suspended.

According to a notice released on Friday by Linxian county, Shanxi province, a group consisting of staff from the commission for discipline inspection, supervisory commission, public security bureau, as well as education and science and technology bureau are investigating the incident.

"We will have an overhaul on the school operation and strengthen management on teaching staff to avoid incidents like this from happening again," the authorities said. "We'll also offer psychological assistance to students and parents involved in the incident."

The unidentified female student's elder brother, surnamed Liu, told Red Star News in Chengdu, Sichuan province that family members noticed that his 13-year-old sister had trouble walking on Dec 2.

His sister said the principal of her school beat her around 11 pm on Nov 30 in his office and forced her to write a statement confessing that she'd had a sexual relationship with a male classmate.

Liu said hospital examinations proved his sister's virginity but found that she had several wounds on her head and body.

"I can't imagine what my sister experienced in the principal's office that night or how she was forced to write the statement of confession," Liu was quoted by Red Star News as saying.

Preliminary investigations showed that the school, located in Anye village, Linxian county, has 530 students from grades 1 to 9. Liu's sister and a male student, surnamed Wang, were in Grade 9 and were among the 137 students boarding at the school.

Wang often came after curfew to her dormitory－where she has seven roommates－and stayed for one or two hours.

Thinking that the two students might be in a relationship, which was forbidden by the school, the principal called her into the office. The principal then beat her as he thought she was lying. He also forced her to write down what had happened between Wang and her, according to the notice.

Liu said that he had asked the principal to compensate his sister's loss, but was refused. "We are now urging him to apologize," he said.