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Possible corruption being investigated at high school

By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-15 07:20

CHENGDU: Peace has returned to a high school in Gulin county, Sichuan province, in the wake of a student uproar that led to the removal of its headmaster and an investigation into possible corruption on campus.

During a heat wave lasting several days, power was cut off several times at the State-owned Linyang High School, built in 1972.

Around 11 pm on Sept 10, the dormitory administrator first cut off electricity for girl students.

Because the power supply was not cut off throughout the campus, the girls demanded that administrators turn the power back on so they could operate air conditioners and electric fans in their rooms. But their pleas were denied, and some of the girls became agitated.

When the power was cut off at the boys' dormitories, they became agitated as well.

A large number of boys gathered outside and they pushed the principal, Liu Baocheng, to the ground.

About 50 boys rushed to the canteen, smashing its windows and other facilities. They also ruined food in the buffet, according to an investigation conducted by a team sent by the Luzhou municipal government. Luzhou has Gulin under its administration.

As the riot drew a crowd of several hundred students who wanted to dash out of the school to continue rioting in the street, 19 policemen arrived to maintain order.

As more students tried to leave the school, the policemen had to form a human wall outside the gate and used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The students eventually became quiet and returned to their dormitories around

4:30 am the next day upon the persuasion of school teachers and officials from the county education bureau and government, said Pu Xi, an information officer in Luzhou.

No students were seriously injured. Only two students' hands were injured when they broke glass.

Eight students whose eyes were stung by tear gas were alright after their eyes were washed, Pu said.

Soon after the unrest, the Luzhou municipal government sent an investigation group to Gulin, who found that longstanding problems with the school's logistics department had triggered the unrest.

Two years ago, a private businessman spent 12 million yuan ($1.8 million) to build school dormitories, a canteen and a buffet in exchange for the operating rights of the canteen, dormitories, buffet and clinic for 22 years.

Local government officials would not provide the name of the businessman who ran the logistics department.

The businessman provided only shoddy food and vegetables, the investigation found.

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In addition, everything sold in the buffet was 0.5 yuan more expensive than it was outside the school.

The logistics department did not provide boiled water, forcing students to buy bottled water in the buffet.

Before the businessman's arrival, each student paid between 80 and 150 yuan to live on campus for one semester. But after the businessman began his management of the department, a student had to pay between 480 and 580 yuan for one semester, although the service did not improve.

Also, the businessman forbade poor students who wanted to save money to live in their relatives' homes off-campus. He also ordered students not to take food and fruit to the school, for fear the buffet would not make money.

The businessman's employees searched the students when they suspected they had brought food onto campus, said Hu Liangwei, a teacher of Chinese in the school.

Many teachers and students had reported the problems to school authorities many times but had not received any response, said Hu, who added that more than 1,000 students took part in the unrest.

After the unrest, Liu Baocheng, the school principal, was removed from his post by the county authorities.

Local authorities have announced that new bids will be taken for the right to manage the school canteen and buffet so that service will improve and prices will be slightly lower than market prices.

According to Pu, the Luzhou municipal government has ordered investigations at all schools to see whether similar problems exist.