Police dispersed over 100 parents on September 14 from a ceremony to bemoan children who died in collapsed school buildings during the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province of southwest China. A teacher was reported to have been arrested for writing memorial slogans for the children.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese festival featuring family reunion, parents gathered at the Xinjian Primary School in Dujiangyan City where their children were buried under collapsed buildings. The peaceful assembly was dispersed by local police, parents said.
Yang, father of a student victim, said that at about 11 a.m. dozens of policemen interrupted the ceremony and dispersed the crowd. No injury was reported.
Police arrested a female teacher of the school, Zhou, who wrote down a slogan to commemorate the dead children. Zhou’s whereabouts are unknown.
Yang said the police also detained over 10 reporters who showed up at the scene, and deleted all the photos in their cameras.
Another parent, Chen, confirmed the story, adding that the police threatened the parents not to hold similar events again. Chen said he did not dare to disclose the threats of the police since many parents had been under close surveillance.
Earlier in September five representatives of the parents tried to petition to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for the shoddy school buildings, but were arrested and detained for a few days.
A local police spokesperson denied any knowledge about the arrest of the teacher and parents representatives.
Most parts of Xinjian Primary School collapsed during the “5.12” Wenchuan Earthquake, killing over 300 of the 680 students.
