China kindergarten teacher poisoned 25 students with nitrite-laced porridge after fight with staff, gets death
A kindergarten teacher in China has been sentenced to death after she poisoned 25 children following an argument with a rival staff member. One of the kids died in the process. The Jiaozuo Intermediate People's Court in Henan province described killer Wang Yun's motives as "despicable" and "vicious" in its official ruling Monday, CNN reported. "She should be punished severely in accordance with the law," the ruling stated.
In the days leading up to the poisoning, Wang had reportedly quarreled with another teacher at the Jiaozuo kindergarten over how to handle students, the court heard. On the morning of March 27, 2019, Wang added nitrite to porridge intended for the other teacher's students. While the porridge was supplied by the school, Wang had reportedly purchased the nitrite online. Nitrite is highly toxic and a likely carcinogen often used in fertilizers, food preservation, and even munitions and explosives, per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can potentially hinder the absorption of oxygen into the body at high levels. In February 2017, Wang had reportedly been caught trying to poison her husband Feng after an argument. At the time, she poured nitrite into a glass used by her husband and thereby caused minor injuries.
Speaking to China's state-run tabloid Global Times after the 2019 kindergarten poisoning, one parent said he had received a call saying his child had vomited and fainted. He found the child unconscious when he arrived at the kindergarten. "The vomit was all over (their) pants. There were other children who were also throwing up, and they looked pale," the father, surnamed Li, said at the time.
That said, Wang's sentence comes on the heels of fresh allegations of the ill-treatment of children at another kindergarten in northern China. State media Xinhua reported how eight parents claimed they found unknown needle marks on their children's heads and bodies after they came home from Zhaojun Dingqi Kindergarten in Hohhot, located in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.
When asked about the marks, children told parents their teacher stabbed them with "toothpicks" and "red needles" if they didn't behave in class. In fact, they allegedly ordered the children not to tell their families about it. The Xincheng district police said in a statement that three women had been detained on suspicion of "torturing children under their guardianship," albeit the case is still under investigation. Meanwhile, the Dingqi kindergarten said in a statement that the school apologized for the distress caused to parents, but hadn't found any evidence to substantiate the claims as yet.
"At present, (we) have cooperated with the police to provide relevant surveillance footage and equipment, and cooperated with the investigation by the public security department," the statement said.
In a similar case from November 2017, a Beijing kindergarten teacher was jailed for 18 months after she pierced four children in her class with needles. Authorities said the teacher, identified only by his surname Liu, was using the needles to "tame" the students in her class, according to Global Times.