Children simply playing with their toys in Nanjing has recently resulted in physical conflict between their mothers. And as if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, it turned out that one the parties involved is a teacher at a local primary school.
When Ms. Wang took her child to the play park a few days ago, she hardly expected to be getting into fisticuffs with a Nanjing school teacher.
The teacher, who works at Lixian Primary School located near Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing’s Gulou District, had also taken her child to the same amusement park to play that day.
Wang later told The Paper that the teacher claimed Wang’s child had taken her child’s toy while they were sitting together in “Sand Pool” at a local shopping mall.
And it was this perceived “robbery” which inexplicably pushed the unnamed teacher over the edge. The two then jostled for a few seconds before getting up to send the fists flying.
Video of the fight from a surveillance camera mounted above the play area can be seen via this link.
The incident is particularly hard to believe in light of the fact that teachers are revered by the general public in China. In fact, more revered than anywhere else in the world.
This was the main takeaway after the UK’s University of Sussex compiled a global index comparing the status of teachers in 21 countries. That’s when China came out on top.
The study examined each country’s public attitudes to the professional status of teachers, the trust placed in them and their pay levels, as well as the desirability of taking on teaching as a career, reported the BBC at the time.
Back here in Nanjing, Wang has said that she is yet to receive an apology from the other party. Yesterday, 4 November, a representative of the Principal’s Office at Lixian Primary School had few words to say, other than that the police are presently handling the matter.
