Times News: It was rumored in Wenzhou that a sixth-grade girl student from Yongjia, who was living with her homestay teacher, was sexually assaulted by the teacher’s father.
Yesterday, it was confirmed by Yongjia Procuratorate that the suspect Pan, accused of sexually assaulting the girl, has been arrested on charges of rape. The specific details of the case are still under further investigation.
It is reported that the victimized girl is a left-behind child whose father does business outside and whose mother passed away last year. She had been living with the homestay teacher for five years.
Currently, there are nearly 100,000 left-behind children in Wenzhou.
The little girl became taciturn
Xiao Wen (a pseudonym) is a sixth-grade student at a primary school in Yongjia. She is diligent, independent, and academically excellent.
In recent times, people around her noticed that the originally lively Xiao Wen suddenly became silent and uncommunicative.
One day in October, her attentive cousin sister noticed that Xiao Wen's abdomen was slightly swollen, initially thinking she was sick.
Her cousin sister took Xiao Wen to the hospital for an ultrasound examination. The result shocked everyone - Xiao Wen was already five months pregnant.
The perpetrator turned out to be the teacher's father
Under the persuasion of her family, Xiao Wen hesitantly revealed the truth: the one who extended his wicked hand towards her was none other than Pan, the father of her homestay teacher.
Due to her family being far away, for the past five years, Xiao Wen had been living with the teacher. According to police investigations, Pan first committed his "bestial act" against Xiao Wen in November last year. To make matters worse, her mother also passed away that year.
After the first assault, seeing that Xiao Wen did not dare to speak up or report to the police, Pan became even more audacious. According to relevant personnel from the Yongjia Procuratorate, up until the case was uncovered, Pan had raped Xiao Wen over a dozen times.
There are nearly one million left-behind children in Wenzhou
It was learned that when Xiao Wen was very young, her parents went to do business elsewhere. Since the first grade, Xiao Wen had been living with her homestay teacher.
A person from the Yongjia Procuratorate said that Xiao Wen's teacher was busy with work and rarely returned home. Xiao Wen lived with Pan's father and several other students, who were cared for by him. "Pan watched Xiao Wen grow up."
Xiao Wen's tragedy cannot fail to awaken us.
According to relevant data, there are over 5 million people from our province doing business outside, leaving behind 250,000 left-behind children. Among them, Wenzhou alone has over 2 million people doing business outside for long periods, leaving nearly 100,000 left-behind children.
Due to restrictions in educational policies and convenience for working outside, many parents leave their children back home.
In Wenzhou, there are generally three modes of fostering children at home: boarding at school, entrusting them to grandparents or relatives, and paying for them to live with teachers.
"Leaving children to live with teachers has been popular for many years," said a local person. "During the period of living with teachers, parents often consider the teacher as the guardian and feel at ease, thus neglecting attention to their children."
The "vacuum" in safety connections between schools and families
Wenzhou Municipal Committee member He Zhenmei, in her report "The Current Situation and Countermeasures for Left-Behind Children in Wenzhou," stated that compared to peers in the same living environment, their situation is worrying, mainly manifested in personality defects, lack of affection, value distortion, psychological barriers, and poor independence.
At the same time, there are safety hazards. Due to the "vacuum" in safety connections between schools and families, potential safety hazards such as left-behind children injuring others or being injured occur from time to time. In Yongjia, last September, two left-behind teenagers made a suicide pact.
In a survey questionnaire conducted in Lucheng District of Wenzhou, almost 100% of left-behind children said that their legitimate rights and interests have been violated, and 8% of the children said they had become targets of criminal offenses.
He Zhenmei believes that apart from helping substitute guardians establish correct "home education" concepts and encouraging parents working outside to maintain regular contact with substitute guardians and their children, caring individuals living around left-behind children should actively participate in the cause of caring for these children, becoming their substitute parents, and becoming their "family" in terms of daily life, emotions, and education.