The lives of many Sichuan parents were changed forever when their children fell victim to shoddy school construction in the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Jill Drew of the Washington Post covers their stories:
Fuxin No. 2 Primary School was built in 1988 using blueprints the local education bureau copied from elsewhere to save money. Jiang Xuyin, deputy chief of the team that built it, said he had presented documents three times to a special investigative team after the quake showing that officials had required his workers to build a two-story brick building with no reinforcements. Then, two months into construction, the officials told them to install a third floor, Jiang said.
[…] Jiang said he does not know whether the investigators issued a report or a conclusion. Still, he said he thinks no shoddily built school would be tolerated today.
“This kind of thing can never happen again,” he said, chain-smoking cigarettes in his home, whose walls still displayed cracks from the earthquake. “It was a lesson learned in blood.”
