This is not another case of a teacher complaining about treatment. This is a cautionary tale about the so called educational institutions called "Private Colleges"

Here in China "Private Colleges" are not held in high esteem here due to the fact that admissions requirements are artificially low and tuition is extremely high. As you can expect the students that are attracted to these institutions are low achievers with parents rich enough to afford these "pseudo colleges" I was the senior teacher this past year at Zhongshan College in Nanjing, China.

I was in charge of discipline so when one of my teachers ran into my office to tell me about a student that was making it impossible to teach. I went down to the class and found the Vice Principal and the student counselor standing outside the room and when I entered the student was making an impassioned speech, that I was later told was about why foreign teachers are destroying China. I ordered the student to leave the room and he walked up to me and pushed me aside and slammed the door. I left the classroom and saw the student talking to the counselor. When he saw me he screamed Chinese and English profanity are me. I told him that I was going to remove him from the program at the English program I was teaching.

Minutes later the student, who is 185cm and 80kg to my 175cm and 70kg, run up behind me and slammed me against the wall and kicked and punched me till 4 others standing by pulled him off of me. I told my assistant to call the police and soon they came and took the student away who also fought with the police.

I was taken to the hospital with fractured ribs and the head of the school and principal begged me not to go to press charges but I said I needed to so that this will not happen to others. I was really naive to think that the school or police were on my side. Both worked with the parents to persuade me not to go to court with the case. I persisted until the school said they would expel the student only if I dropped it and accepted money that the parents were offering. I said I needed money for my medical care so I just named a small amount of 5000 RMB and the police called the parents and gave me the money within an hour. I told the school that there policies of over-looking bad and sometimes violent behavior had created the situation.

Well, I stayed at the school thinking that the administration would stand beside me but soon after they said I should leave for my safety since another student had made a threat that a fellow student had heard. I was told that is was for my safety and the foreign employer had me fill another vacancy they had at a different location. The real story was later told that a few students said they would go if I did not go because I was too strict.

It was only a month later that another foreign what beaten by a student when he disciplined a student. He was not as seriously hurt so the school only conceded that they would pay for off-campus housing.

This story high lights 2 problems. The first is the out of control students whose parents have accepted their poor behavior and the authorities at these so money making enterprises called "Private Colleges, who allow this behavior as not to loose any students, hence loose money. Also the police seem to be part of the problems since they seem to be advocates for the rich parents. All of these factors have emboden this new and dangerous generation of Xiao Huang Di (Little Emperors as they are called) and given them a feeling of invincibility.

To me this is the tip of a very dangerous iceberg. I want to warn teachers about Zhongshan College in Nanjing and to be leary of all "private Colleges"