Talk about taking homework seriously: China went back to school on Monday, and one parent decided to mark the day by killing three elementary students and injuring several others and their teacher by stabbing them with a fruit knife. The reason? According to state media, the attacker’s daughter was refused entry to the class because she hadn’t finished her summer homework.
One local newspaper said the child had a history of failing to complete homework, and was chucked out of two previous schools for the dereliction. When she was refused yet again at a new school on Monday, the first day of the new school year throughout China, her father snapped, attacking the teacher and several students in class. Three of them died en route to hospital, and the attacker jumped to his death from the school building, according to the official broadcaster, CCTV.
School massacres are not just a Chinese thing, of course. The lack of Uzi armouries means that knives are the weapon of choice when a madman targets a school there – doubtless restraining the death toll. Even knives are something of a controlled substance in China: in some areas, buying kitchen cutlery requires an identity card.