Two people, including a teacher, were detained in Beijing amid a nationwide uproar in China over child abuse allegations in kindergarten schools in several cities.
Two suspects in a recent child abuse case in Beijing's RYB school were detained by local police, state-run People's Daily reported today.
The teacher surnamed Liu was under criminal detainment for alleged child abuse. A woman also surnamed Liu was held for fabricating misleading information.
She expressed deep regret about her illegal acts, the report said.
Yesterday China's central Cabinet called for nationwide inspections of kindergartens following allegations of child abuse at a Beijing private kindergarten that sparked public outrage.
Kindergartens in several cities have reported child abuse. Such incidents show that some kindergartens have failed to implement measures and were poorly managed, a notice issued by the education committee of the cabinet called State Council said, state-run Global Times reported.
The media has reported alleged child abuse cases at other kindergartens as well. A teacher at a kindergarten in Zhenjiang, in east China's Jiangsu Province reportedly punched the heads and pulled ears of children. The local education bureau said the teacher who allegedly committed the acts has been suspended.
New World kindergarten is run by RYB Education in Chaoyang district where children were allegedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unspecified drugs, the report said.
A senior People's Liberation Army (PLA) official has denied that the kindergarten has any links with the Chinese military.
The kindergarten was not operated by the army or relatives of soldiers, and soldiers were not involved in the alleged molestation of children, Feng Junfeng, political commissar of a regiment of the PLA Army, told the PLA Daily.
Feng said the kindergarten's head was a relative of a veteran of the regiment.
Audio and video recordings, in which children claimed they were forced to take pills to sleep and given physical examinations by some "uncle and grandpa doctors," with one allegedly being naked, went viral on Thursday, sparking public outrage.
Some netizens claimed that the kindergarten was allegedly run by Feng's regiment, and even soldiers from the regiment had allegedly molested children.
RYB Education responded yesterday, saying the company has provided documents and surveillance footage to police, and that the teachers allegedly involved have been suspended.
The company also told police it has been falsely accused and framed by some people.
Founded in 1998, RYB Education is based in Beijing and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has more than 1,300 day-care centres and nearly 500 kindergartens in 300 cities in China.
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