‘I’m afraid of choking’: video shows private school swim coach in China repeatedly push ‘naughty’ girl’s head underwater
- Family shocked when reviewing security footage to see 46 seconds of coach shoving girl’s head underwater repeatedly
- School apologises to family but did not ask coach to do so, saying it would hurt his pride
Allegations that a private school swimming coach in China repeatedly pushed a seven-year-old girl’s head underwater for getting distracted during a lesson have shocked mainland social media.
Huashang Newspaper reported on August 7 that the unnamed girl, who studies at an exclusive international kindergarten costing 50,000 yuan (US$7,000) annually, was allegedly pushed underwater four times by the swim coach late last month.
The school in Zhejiang, eastern China, dismissed the man, but he is not under any investigation for the alleged assault.
Surveillance footage from the school’s swimming pool shows the coach, who was not named in the report, tugging on the girl’s arm to pull her away from two classmates nearby, then repeatedly pressing her head underwater.
No one reported the incident to authorities or informed the girl’s parents. When the girl’s mother was giving her a bath at home later that day, she said her daughter stopped her when she tried to wash her hair.
“Mother, I don’t want to wash my hair. I’m afraid of choking,” the girl told her mother.
