China Daily reports that an American teacher at a Shanghai international school faces accusations of sexually assaulting at least seven children:
Management at the French school said: “Families have filed accusations with the Chinese police against a teacher at the French school of Shanghai over assaults on their children.”
“The investigation is being carried out by the Chinese police and is ongoing. The teacher has been in administrative detention since his arrest.”
One mother who requested anonymity to protect her child’s privacy said her child started behaving strangely soon after they moved to the country.
“My daughter was having nervous breakdowns, she was scratching herself on her face and thighs,” she said. [Source]
The man, who taught kindergarten, was detained by police on May 13th. AFP’s Sebastien Blanc reported that another teacher at the same school, also an American, was extradited by Chinese authorities in December 2012 over similar accusations:
The second teacher, a friend of the first, was “extradited by Chinese authorities to the United States in December 2012 following an investigation into sexual touching and violence against minors”, the school said in an email.
From 2005 until last year he worked alternately at the French and German schools, which share a campus.
He left the French school in 2011 and its management said his alleged actions took place during individual classes at a private home, when he was no longer on its staff.
One parent expressed frustration, saying: “The French school wants us to believe that there is absolutely no link between these two incidents, except that the two people, while they were working together, were friends.” [Source]
The news comes just weeks after Beijing authorities arrested a British man who was wanted for questioning by U.K. police in connection with child sex offences, a case which generated questions about whether appropriate background checks are performed on the large number of foreign teachers in China.
