Controversy has been swirling around Shaanxi University of Science & Technology for the past week and a half. The cause? An unfortunate drowning accident in the school swimming pool, and the consequential handling of the situation. There are no protests, or vocalizations, but if you ask students about it, or read their comments online, they are less than pleased. Some of the common consensuses are that the teacher didn’t do enough to save him, that the school leaders didn’t take responsibility and inform the family of the truth. About one week later it was learned that the family received 130,000 RMB from the university, a large amount to the peasant family of the child, but in most students’ opinions; a laughable amount for a human life. Read on for more.

The following was taken from a student’s Xiaonei blog, and machine translated. I have made an effort to make it understandable, while changing a minimal amount.

In the afternoon three days ago, on June 22, according to the school’s request, conducted a (scheduled) swimming lesson. Having fun when my ears heard some people say, someone was drowning, I looked up, just to see that a few people carrying the hands of a boy, to shore first aid, I thought nothing of it, just drowning, spit some saliva , he’ll be okay.

 

After having a swim, and back to the dormitory, on the succession of hear people say, that drowning boy had died. At first I did not believe. Then today (June 25th) morning, I have to believe. At the school gate, a few people who appear from the countryside, loudly crying, men and women, young and old, out of curiosity I went to have a look, I could see clearly that the family got a drowned boy. That old lady (presumably his mother) shouted, “you my baby you my baby!”, change to red on campus can be that 20 or so guards, apparently did not mean to old people go, then somehow, a person is taken to guard what I do not know name somewhere. I thought the school had finally taken some positive means to resolve the matter.

Morning, I look at Baidu, you know Baidu Shaanxi University of Science drowning, Baidu said they did not know anything. I then google about it… you know too much, Google still does not know, so I put aside time for the time being. That afternoon I passed the school gate, several family members had hung up banners, that read, “seek truth, seek justice, and so the words also arrayed wreath”. I talked to the family, the drowning man’s brother told me that the school silent on the matter, the family placed in hotels, not to come out. Leaving aside his brother said to be objective, if the school take active measures to solve the problem, who do so?

 

Write this, not because of how I have a sense of justice, how good your own business, I just care about their potential interest. Imagine everyone, far from his home school, which family members hold high expectations and not miss on this is that the school a call that your child died, to receive dead. Members will be what my parents think? The extremely sad to school, the school was so one attitude, then what to think? A swimming pool, drowning incident occurs, will be a positive solution. I think the university should not only as a business to operate, and occasionally, it should bear some responsibility, this responsibility should occasionally be larger than the swimming pool.

 

As a sophomore, the school is now more like a child, his growth, he has done, we are very concerned about, write them, not to expose anything, just hope, hope that the school can be suitably grown.

In the following days, news crews from the local Shaanxi province stations, and reporters from various publications came to see what had happened. This was of course, almost 3 full days after the incident. It was rumored that the students’ family was being jerked around and not told the truth of their son’s circumstances of death. How it happened, when it happened, etc. It seemed clear that the leadership at SUST wanted to keep this quiet.

Has no one ever told them that honesty is the best policy? Students quickly figured out something was up when rumors of a drowning started swirling, obviously this students’ 30+ classmates knew what happened because they were there. The pool was then closed the next day for “cleaning”, this too raised some eyebrows; why would they schedule cleaning on a school day when students should have swimming class? The pool had only been open for 4 weeks maximum, it couldn’t be that dirty.

Once the dead student rumors were confirmed by news reports and the family of the dead, students expressed anger of being left in the dark. Demands of why, after 24 hours, there had been no official announcement. Where was the pool manager? After 72 hours, news finally started trickling out, and students exclaimed that while this boy’s death was a tragedy, an even bigger tragedy occurred in the acts of the previous few days, the secrets, the “dirty” pool needing to be cleaned, no announcements to students, media, no police. Nothing.

When the dead student’s family members put up their memorial on Friday afternoon, along with a banner begging anybody that knew anything to stop by and share their information, the student’s death was really confirmed. The family was distraught with the loss of their son, and now they were being mistreated as well. Crowds circled around them between classes and around meal times; some watching curiously, others talking.

After 2 days of sitting in front of the gate, sleeping outside and the boy’s mother loudly crying for long periods of time, the family finally moved on, away from the school gate. it was rumored that the family received 130,000 RMB ($19,200) from the university for their loss, and hopefully some closure.

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