Photo: thepaper.cn

A teacher in Pingdingshan, Central China's Henan Province, forced a 9-year-old boy to stand on a platform, dragging his hair, which caused his scalp to separate from the skull, because he was chattering in class. The incident has triggered widespread concern in China. 

Currently, the child's injury has improved but he was left with psychological trauma. The teacher involved has been detained by local police, according to a report by thepaper.cn on Thursday.

On March 5, as a punishment for talking in class, several third grade students from Xinhua Road Primary School, in Pingdingshan, were pulled from the hair by their IT teacher, from the last row of seats to the front of the classroom. One of the students surnamed Yuan, was taken to hospital after school because his head was abnormally swollen. It was found later that his scalp had separated from the skull.

According to the injury identification issued by Weidong Branch of the Pingdingshan Public Security Bureau, Yuan's injury constituted a level 2 minor injury. Local police immediately detained the suspect teacher surnamed Chang.

The boy spent 22 days in hospital with the amount of blood drawn reaching more than 1,000 ml. Yuan is now recovering gradually.

Yuan's mother told local media that the child is recuperating at home and still suffers from scalp pain and needs to go to the hospital regularly for check-ups. She was worried about the possible traumatic sequels.

"The school did not expect such a serious situation at first. Chang had been attending classes normally and was not suspended until more than 20 days after the incident. The school also said that it was the teacher's personal behavior," she said, adding that at present, Yuan has become apprehensive to school and her family might transfer him to another school with a new environment.

The school's vice-principal recently revealed that the school reported this incident to the local education bureau but added that it was not convenient to disclose the specific measures of the school to deal with the teacher.  

The case is now pending further investigation by local authorities.