'Rumor' boy back to school after brief expulsion

The high school student from Northwest China's Gansu province who had been expelled by his school under alleged pressure from "authorities," in an episode assumed to be linked to his earlier arrest in a crackdown on online rumor-mongering, went back to class on Tuesday.

The student, 16, who goes by the pseudonym Yang Hui, posted on his Sina Weibo account on Tuesday morning that he would resume studies at the Yusheng High School in Tianshui, Gansu province, immediately.

In a Weibo posting on Monday, Yang had accused the school of throwing him out owing to pressure from "authorities."

"My absence from school on Monday had nothing to do with the school management. I thank the management committee and the teacher in charge of my class," Yang said on Tuesday.

In his posting, Yang also thanked the Chinese media, the Netizens as well as the Gansu Education Department for their help and support.

Yang was purportedly taken out of his classroom by a deputy principal of the school on Monday and told that immense pressure was brought to bear on the school because of the "things" he did, according to his earlier Weibo posting.

Yang was detained on September 17 on a criminal charge of "provoking trouble" after he posted on Weibo questions over a police investigation into a man's death, while writing that "a protest seems unavoidable."

The police later withdrew the criminal charge and made Yang serve a week-long administrative detention citing considerations of his age.

Yang moved from a high school in Zhangjiachuan to Yusheng High School after being released on September 23.

In another Weibo posting on November 10, Yang accused the police of beating him up during his detention in September.

However, according to Tianshui-based news portal tsrb.com.cn, Yang's expulsion had nothing to do with the online rumor crackdown case.

The news portal said that Yang's family had transferred the boy to Yusheng High School with help from a deputy principle's cousin, without providing necessary documents for his enrollment.

As the Tianshui procuratorate started its probe into Yang's allegations of police beating, the deputy principal "grew nervous and decided to expel the boy to cover up for his professional negligence," the portal said.