Teacher apologizes for cutting 6-year-old

A first grade teacher at a boarding school in Minhang district of Shanghai apologized Tuesday for cutting a 6-year-old pupil's face with scissors, local media reported.

The apology came on the heels of the investigation that the Minhang District Education Bureau opened after the girl's family complained to local media.

The teacher, surnamed Xue, said she was using a pair of scissors as a pointer when she accidently slashed the student's face, according to a report on the news website Kankannews.com. She promised to apologize to the girl in front of the entire class and vowed to treat her like her own daughter in the future.

Xue started teaching at the Shanghai Liaoyuan Experimental School in September, according to the website.

Local television news had reported that the girl's grandfather found the nearly 2-centimeter-long scratch when he picked her up last Friday from the weekday boarding school. The girl said that her math teacher scratched her cheek with scissors because she was not paying attention in class.

Another student said the teacher once threatened to cut the students' hair if they did not behave, according to the website.

The girl's father, surnamed Ye, said his daughter was actually injured last Wednesday. "Because it is a boarding school, it does not contact parents when something happens to their children," he told the news website.

One of Xue's colleagues said that they did not contact the parents because the cut was minor, according to the news website.

The school's board chairman took responsibility for the incident, according to the website. Regardless of whether Xue's actions were intentional, the chairman said it was still the school's fault for managing the teachers poorly. He promised to investigate the incident.

China's Law on the Protection of Minors and related local regulations prohibit corporal punishment in schools, though they do not specify what constitutes corporal punishment.

"If the students and parents' claims are true, then the teacher could be punished by the school, the local education bureau or the police, depending on the severity of the offense," said Zhang Chengbiao, a lawyer from Shanghai Oushen Law Firm.

The most serious punishment she could face would be police detainment or the termination of her contract, Zhang told the Global Times.