Students in China allegedly blindfolded & unknowingly stepped on parents in 'gratitude education' activity, school criticised

A middle school in Henan, China has been criticised for letting its students step on their parents in a supposed "gratitude education" activity.

Zhongmou No. 3 High School in Zhongmou County in Zhengzhou reportedly carried out the activity on Sep. 30.

Middle schools in China are attended by 12 to 15-year-olds.

The school put up a statement about the incident on its official WeChat account on Oct. 6.

Stepping on parents

According to a video on Chinese media outlet Jimu News, students were reportedly blindfolded for the activity.

Their parents were allegedly blindfolded and knelt on the ground.

The students, assisted by others, then appeared to walk over the parents' backs.

Another video by a investigative Chinese media platform, guancha.cn (观察者网), also posted a video of the activity on WeChat.

Cried seeing parent

United Daily News reported statements of social media users, who were students of that school.

One of them said: "The most outrageous thing was that the students didn’t know it was their parents below. They walked on them with their eyes blindfolded. After one girl took off her blindfold, she found out it was her parents and started crying."

Another social media user reportedly commented: "I graduated a few years ago, we did similar things then, but it wasn’t on this scale. Back then, the male students were made to lie on the ground."

"There was background music reportedly playing during the event and a voice allegedly said: "Go! Go!"

Two classes involved

United Daily News reported that the activity was supposedly not organised by the school, based on an unnamed staff from the Zhongmou County Education Bureau.

The staff said the school reportedly was not informed that such an activity would take place.

"It involved students from two classes, and it was organised by the teachers of these two classes," said the staff.

The staff added: "The principal said they are investigating what happened."

School statement

In response to Chinese media coverage of the incident, the school has apologised.

It said the senior first-year students held a joint education event between the parents and school.

The statement added that as part of the event, certain classes held a "gratitude education" activity after obtaining parental consent.

However, there was inadequate consideration given to specific details of the activity.

This led to inappropriate conduct in the process of the activity.

As a result, this caused a misunderstanding among members of the media and online users.

The school said it would pay attention to its educational methods and approaches in carrying out future activities.

It added that it would further optimise its educational practices and strengthen standardised management.

"We express our gratitude to all sectors of society for their care, attention, and supervision of our school," the school said.

Top photos via Jimu News, 观察者网/WeChat