China schools reopen with guards after attacks

[May 04, 2010]  BEIJING (AP) -- Extra police and security staff stood guard Tuesday as parents dropped off their children on the first day of classes in China since dozens of students were injured in three back-to-back attacks on schools last week.

In Beijing, police cars flashed lights outside some schools as guards in orange vests watched students enter gates. Guards in the southern city of Guangzhou prevented parents from entering school premises without special permission. Parents in Shanghai discussed ways to strengthen security at kindergartens.

Child safety is an issue that touches nerves across Chinese society, particularly among members of the urban middle class who invest huge amounts of money and effort in the education and care of their only children. Most Chinese have only one child under the country's population control laws.

Scandals in recent years in which children have been the main victims have sparked public anger and occasional protests, such as in recent months when at least 3,000 children around the country were found suffering from lead poisoning due to polluting factories built too close to villages, and in 2008 when tainted baby milk powder sickened more than 300,000 infants.

The education system has long been criticized for being poorly equipped and underfunded in rural areas while the expansion of tertiary education has been disorganized and prone to corruption.

Now it is also under pressure to strengthen security after the attacks, the latest of which was on Friday when a farmer struck five students with a hammer at a primary school in the eastern city of Weifang before pouring gasoline over his body and burning to death. No children were seriously hurt.

Parents in Beijing said they were glad to see the new security measures on the first day of school after a three-day public holiday.

"I was a little worried after seeing those reports on TV about the attacks," said Liu Xingwu, who sent his 7-year-old granddaughter by bicycle to the Shijia Elementary School in central Beijing. "The security measures are good. But we've also told her to be careful. ... If there are any problems, call the police."

School security has been an increased focus for over a month since a man stabbed eight elementary schoolchildren to death in March in Fujian province. That attacker was executed on April 28, the same day that a 33-year-old former teacher broke into a primary school in the southern city of Leizhou in Guangdong province and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife.

Then on Thursday in Taixing city in Jiangsu province, a 47-year-old unemployed man armed with an 8-inch (20-centimeter) knife wounded 29 kindergarten students -- five of them seriously -- plus two teachers and a security guard.

The government has sought to appear in control of the situation. The Ministry of Public Security issued an emergency notice Saturday to police departments around the country to strengthen patrols in and around schools at the beginning and end of the school day, and to inspect small hotels, Internet cafes and "recreational sites" next to schools.

"We must take fast action to strengthen security for schools and kindergartens to create a harmonious environment for children to study and grow up," senior Communist Party leader Zhou Yongkang told a conference on maintaining stability Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

At Shijia Elementary in Beijing, two security guards stationed at the main entrance raised their arms to block parents accompanying their children from going past the stainless steel gate.

"Our main objective is to take safety precautions," said Zhang Xinxiong, a teacher in charge of security. "These days every family has only one child, so of course they are expected to be worried."

"Hurry into school," Zhang said to the arriving children. "Don't linger outside."

Another parent thought the beefed-up security was somewhat extreme. "Those attacks were just individual situations," said Li Bin, 37, a company manager. "There shouldn't be so many guards at the school. It makes the school environment too tense and it may scare the children."

In Guangzhou, a pair of guards at the Jianshe Damalu Elementary were posted on both sides of the front entrance, which had a spiked iron-rod gate.

"I'm satisfied with the security at this school. Two guards are always at the gate and they don't let strangers in," said one father, an office clerk who would give only his surname, Li. "If you want to go in, you need to show your ID and they'll check them."

One parent in Shanghai said the attacks had shaken many parents. "All our friends are talking about these crimes. It's horrible. It feels like it's unsafe to send our kids to school," said Jiang Chenkui, a lawyer and father of a 5-year-old boy.

Jiang has urged the parents' association of the kindergarten his son attends to pressure the school to implement tighter security. "I don't mind paying for it, since I can't afford the risk of losing our child."

[Associated Press; By GILLIAN WONG]

Associated Press writer William Foreman in Guangzhou and researcher Ji Chen in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.