Allegations that a private school swimming coach in China repeatedly pushed a seven-year-old girl’s head underwater for getting distracted during a lesson have shocked social media.
Huashang Newspaper reported on August 7 that the unnamed girl, who studies at an exclusive international kindergarten costing 50,000 yuan annually, was allegedly pushed underwater four times by the swim coach late last month.
The school in Zhejiang, eastern China, dismissed the man, but he is not under any investigation for the alleged assault.
Surveillance footage from the school’s swimming pool shows the coach, who was not named in the report, tugging on the girl’s arm to pull her away from two classmates nearby, then repeatedly pressing her head underwater.
No one reported the incident to authorities or informed the girl’s parents. When the girl’s mother was giving her a bath at home later that day, she said her daughter stopped her when she tried to wash her hair.