The recent sentencing of a high school physics teacher in China to 18 years’ imprisonment offers cold comfort to the parents of the 23-year-old woman whom he drove to suicide. When gossip about the teacher and the student reached the latter's mother, she confronted them both. In 2018, a 17-year-old had jumped to her death, egged on by a crowd both online and offline, for the same reason: two years of battling depression after her high school class teacher molested her. Only after her public suicide was the teacher arrested, but the court refused to make the crucial link between her suicide and the assault. As students prepare for the pre-university exam, high school becomes their second home and teachers become their guardians.

Source: The Telegraph February 06, 2026 02:00 UTC