A child seeks comfort from his mother at the Xiaofuxing daycare center in Minhang district, Shanghai, on Monday. Eight children at the school were hurt by a staff member. Xue Yubin / for China Daily

SHANGHAI - A staff member at a daycare center for migrant workers attacked children in her charge with a knife on Monday, wounding eight of them.

The attack took place at noon at the Xiaofuxing daycare center in Shanghai's suburban Minhang district, which is home to a large number of migrant workers.

Five boys and three girls between the ages of 3 and 4 were hurt in the outbreak of violence, suffering wounds to their hands, faces and necks.

Two of the children had serious injuries to their head and neck muscles. The hospital declined to give more information.

The police have detained the person who is suspected of committing the attack, a woman who is believed to have been undergoing a psychotic episode. She is now under investigation, officials said without giving further details.

"I never thought this would happen," said a man with the surname Li, 38, whose 5-year-old son was at the daycare center but in a different place from where the attack occurred. "We were just told by the center to pick up my son in the afternoon."

"My son once told me that his teacher often smacked him. I asked the teachers at the center but they denied it and said it was my son's classmates who smacked him."

Li was from Fengyang, Anhui province, and has been in Shanghai for about 10 years. He said he sent his son to the daycare center on the recommendation of someone else from his hometown.

"The fees in other kindergartens are very expensive, so we had to send my child here," he said.

Li said the Xiaofuxing daycare center is run privately and charges 300 yuan in fees each month. It has four classes, each containing from 30 to 40 students. There have meanwhile been other complaints about the suspected teacher.

"The teacher slashed my face with a pointed tool," said Gao Tiantian, a 4-year-old girl who suffered light injuries to her face. She said the teacher's uncle had also pinched her, an account that the police could not verify.

"There are several privately run daycare centers nearby," said a local resident whose surname is Yang. "Some of them are in concealed places."

He said these centers are mainly for the children of migrant workers.

Li's reaction to the attack was one of disbelief.

"Who would have thought such a thing could happen? And who would dare to send their children to that center again?"

The attack was the latest incident in a spate of violence directed against children in schools and nurseries.

Observers said it revealed the need that migrant workers' children have for good nurseries and schools.

Since such children usually do not have the qualifications needed to attend public kindergartens and cannot afford to pay the high fees charged by private ones, many end up going to informal nurseries, which are often believed to be unsafe.

In June, a man working in the Minhang district at a private kindergarten for migrant workers was detained on suspicion of sexually molesting five girls.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/30/2011 page5)