Beijing Child Abuse Scandal

[Eulenspiegel]

This is huge news in China at the moment.

children at a Beijing kindergarten were intimidated, drugged with pills and needles, forced to strip naked, or sexually abused

source: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2017/11/minitrue-dont-report-comment-beijing-kindergarten-abuse/

So there was an unexpected swift military response to a civilian incident, the censorship was also swift and Chinese sources present less information than the English article I linked to above. This is an upscale kindergarten with a huge monthly fee by local standards, and this scandal led many parents to wonder what else might be going on in orphanages and less well known kindergardens around China.
There are now allegations of a pedophile sex ring being run by the military and/or gov authorities, and this might become sort of a Chinese Pizzagate, if it were not for the thorough censorship imposed on the news.

What's different from the other incidents in China so far, is that these news caused widespread anger, especially among parents of course. It has also highlighted again how "issues" are dealt with by the Party(don't mention it, it's just a "rumor") and has dealt a blow to the image of "father state" that is being promoted by the current Xi Jinping run government in China.

 

[angelburst29]

Reports state, "the preschool education facility is run by RYB Education, a New York-listed company" which lead me to suspicions that the schools are connected to the Gulen Foundation? RYB Education Inc. ADR is on the NASDAQ Stock exchange.

A firm that runs a kindergarten network which has spread throughout China has promised a 'zero-tolerance' policy following recent claims about serious teacher misconduct in one of its facilities.

Scandal Breaks Out in US-Listed Education Company Amid Child Abuse Claims
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201711241059415594-scandal-us-listed-company-child-abuse/

A Chinese kindergarten has become the epicenter of a child abuse scandal that has deeply shocked Chinese residents and caused public outrage, media reported.

Some teachers working in the preschool educational facility in Chaoyang district in Beijing, have been suspended, while the police have launched an investigation into the issue.

The move came after several parents accused the school staff of molesting their children earlier this week.

They also claimed that they had found needle marks on their kids' bodies. Some children also reportedly confessed to their parents that they were injected with a brown liquid by a teacher, given strange pills or "made to stand naked."

All of them were reportedly told by the teachers to keep the abusive incidents a secret. The claims concern at least eight children in two classes.

The preschool education facility is run by RYB Education, a New York-listed company, which apologized to the parents and promised "a zero tolerance" approach following the incident.

The firm had already made the headlines in April after a kid was hit and pushed by a teacher at another kindergarten in Beijing.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI - Chinese police are investigating claims of sexual molestation and needlemarks on children at a Beijing kindergarten run by RYB Education Inc, the latest case in a booming childcare industry to spark outrage among parents, sending the company's New York-listed shares tumbling on Friday.

RYB shares plunge nearly 40 percent in early New York trade
http://www.4-traders.com/RYB-EDUCATION-INC-ADR-37879256/news/RYB-shares-plunge-nearly-40-percent-in-early-New-York-trade-25566543/

The official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that police were checking allegations that some teachers and staff at the kindergarten had abused children, who were "reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills".

Shares in RYB plunged 38 percent on the New York Stock Exchange early on Friday, almost wiping out most of the 44 percent rise in the Chinese company's stock since its IPO in September.

Parents said their children, some as young as three, relayed troubling accounts of a naked adult male conducting purported "medical check-ups" on students, who were also unclothed, other media said.

Some parents, who gathered outside the school to demand answers on Thursday, said their children gave matching accounts of being fed unidentified tablets and of punishments where students were "made to stand" naked in class, media said.

The welfare of children in professional care has become a hot-button issue in China, where a string of high-profile cases of abuse has underlined lax regulations and supervision in the childcare and early learning industry.

"We deeply apologise for the serious anxiety this matter has brought to parents and society," RYB said in a statement on its official microblog on Friday, adding that it was helping authorities.

"We are currently working with the police to provide relevant surveillance materials and equipment; the teachers in question have been suspended and we are co-operating with the police investigation," it said.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION - The school's principal had lodged a police report against "individuals who have engaged in false accusations and framing", it said, without elaborating.

Beijing police did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

In a statement before its shares opened trade on Friday, RYB said it was planning a $50 million share buy-back programme and had established a special task force led by independent company directors to do a "thorough self-inspection across all teaching facilities".

China's education ministry has begun a special investigation into the operation of kindergartens, it said in a statement on Thursday, and told education departments nationwide to "take warning from these types of incidents".

Separate incidents in China of children being slapped, beaten with a stick and having their mouths sealed shut with duct tape have also gone viral and fuelled anger online.

News of the investigation into the Beijing kindergarten triggered a wave of outrage on social media, with more than 76 million mentions of "RYB" on Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat messaging service on Thursday.

"These may be individual cases but the deeper problems they reflect cannot be overlooked," a Xinhua editorial said. "Laws must be enforced, supervision strengthened, teacher wages increased. The childcare industry cannot be allowed to grow in an uncivilised fashion."

HOT SECTOR - Chinese education providers have been attracting major investment, while others have sought global listings, latching onto fast-growing demand from parents for high-end education services.

Before Friday, shares in RYB had been up about 44 percent since a September New York listing, giving it a market value of nearly $766 million. This was not the first case of alleged abuse at an RYB school.

In 2015, a court in Jilin province found two teachers guilty of physically abusing children at one of its kindergartens in the city of Siping. In that case, staff at the school on "multiple occasions used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care", according to the court ruling document.

Earlier this year, RYB said it had found "serious mistakes" at another one of its Beijing schools and had asked the principal to step down after videos emerged showing teachers hitting and pushing children.

State television broadcast images of police and angry parents gathered outside the school in Beijing on Thursday, calling for answers.

On Friday, one father leaving the school said he had been there to cancel his son's enrolment and demand a refund.

Another parent, 36-year-old Wang Siqi, said she took the day off work to demand answers, even though her six-year-old son does not attend the school.

"As a mother when I saw this news I really couldn't take it," she said. "This is unforgivable."

RYB says on its website it runs a network of more than 1,300 directly owned and franchised play-and-learn centres and nearly 500 kindergartens for children up to age six in about 300 Chinese cities and towns.

Latest news on RYB EDUCATION INC - ADR
05:47a RYB EDUCATION : Chinese police detain woman suspected of abusing children
11/24 RYB shares plunge nearly 40 percent in early New York trade
11/24 Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Claims Against RYB Educa..
11/24 RYB EDUCATION : 3 Beijing teachers suspended
11/24 RYB EDUCATION : Slumps on Sex Assault Allegations
11/24 BEIJING : 'needle' abuse of kindergarten children shocks China
11/24 Authorities investigate allegations youngsters abused
11/24 RYB EDUCATION : Chinese parents demand answers to kindergarten abuse claims
11/21 Chinese Education Market Continues to Boom
11/10 RYB EDUCATION, INC. : to Report Third Quarter 2017 Financial Results on Wednesda..

China kindergarten sex abuse and 'needlemarks' claims prompt police probe (Video)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ryb-education-china/china-kindergarten-sex-abuse-and-needlemarks-claims-prompt-police-probe-idUSKBN1DO01D

 

[Chu]

Indeed, something seems really fishy here. Two cases of "injections" and all that, in the same organization, two years apart? Of course, they'll blame it on a few teachers. But what's the likelihood of it happening so often? It sounds to me as some kind of sick CIA experiment with children , but I could be having a "conspiracy theory run amok day"...

 

[angelburst29]

Fmr Clinton Foundation Exec Tied to Int’l Group Accused of Mass Drugging & Molesting Kids (Videos)
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/former-clinton-foundation-executive-ties-chinese-sexual-abuse-scandal/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_mN-CVJFws (4:12 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQIsl8ViBuQ (1:24 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHUKtDyFvs (2:14 min.)

China has been rocked with an international scandal involving a publicly traded educational institution and its site-based kindergarten, which is accused of acting as a breeding ground for pedophilia. Now, it seems, a former Clinton Foundation executive has ties to the RYB Education New World system of schools, which are being accused of drugging and sexually assaulting young children.

The RYB Education New World system of schools is a publicly traded company within the United States on the NYSE. Upon news of the horrifying criminal allegations, the stock abruptly dropped nearly 40 percent.

The investigation started four days ago when it was reported that several children at the school were being drugged so that adults could take advantage of them sexually. According to one Chinese source: “Preschool children at the RYB Education New World kindergarten in Chaoyang District were reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills.”

Joel Getz was at one time an independent Director at RYB Education. He also served as the Director of Development for the Clinton Foundation. RYB Education is the parent company of the Beijing kindergarten where the alleged assaults took place. The abuse came to light when concerned parents began discussing similar stories among themselves online and later carried their concerns to police who promptly opened an investigation.

Furious parents gathered over the weekend in front of the RYB headquarters and demanded answers.

Parents were able to identify precisely which in class the assaults were allegedly taking place. A foreign teacher, along with four teachers were also reportedly present in the bilingual classroom. Even though the school remained open through the weekend, few parents allowed their children to go to the class in question.

RYB Education is based in Beijing and listed on the NYSE (RYB). It has more than 1,300 daycare centers, in addition to the 500 kindergartens across 300 cities in China, according to its website. As can be clearly seen, one accusation of child molestation is powerful enough to potentially destroy an educational company like RYB. The company’s stock is down nearly 40 percent following the story’s publication.

Since its founding, RYB has been extremely profitable in China. According to the South China Morning Post, RYB:

“posted net profits of US $4.9 million in the first half of this year, up nearly 20 per cent from 2016. Business revenues, mainly from tuition and franchise fees, surged 30 per cent year on year to US$64.3 million for the first six months”

Late-breaking news Sunday confirmed authorities have moved to supervise every kindergarten in Beijing with an educational inspector to oversee operations, following the scandal at RYB.

It is unclear if Getz is involved in any way in the abuse on such a local scale, but surely his office is running damage control in an attempt to re-establish the credibility lost in having his name attached to a company now accused of involvement in child abuse, while charged with protecting and educating Chinese children.

After reviewing a lot of information on the RYB Education system, when it began operating in China (1998) and how it has expanded it's operations to 1,300 daycare centers and 500 kindergartens across 300 cities in China, I see a very similar "system set up" with the Gulen Charter Schools in the U.S. which began a year later in 1999, when Gulen took up residence in the Pocono's in Pennsylvania. The similarities lead me to suspect that there is a connection between RYG and Gulen's Charter Schools? RYG might be an "Umbrella organization" under the supervision of the Gulen educational system?

While Joel Getz is connected to the RYB Educational program, including the Clinton's and the Clinton Foundation - Recep Ozkan, a key Gülen operative in New York, who manages Gulen's charter school companies like Sema Education and Apple Education Services is also heavily involved with the Clinton's and the Clinton Foundation. Ozkan had served as a national finance co-chair (2014) for a pro-Clinton political action committee called Ready PAC.

Hillary Clinton Has Received Donations From Gulenists Nov 23, 2015
_http://www.educationviews.org/hillary-clinton-received-donations-gulenists/

Members of a secretive Turkish Islamic movement that is at the center of a congressional ethics committee investigation have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and to her family’s charity, a Daily Caller investigation has found.

The largest donation from a leader of the Gulen movement, which is operated from Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains by a moderate Muslim cleric named Fethullah Gulen, came from Recep Ozkan.

A former president of the Gulen-linked Turkish Cultural Center, Ozkan gave between $500,001 and $1,000,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent months, the charity’s website shows. He also served as a national finance co-chair last year for a pro-Clinton political action committee called Ready PAC.

But with an estimated 8 million followers and $50 billion in assets, Gulenists do hope to influence both the U.S. and Turkish political system through a worldwide network of businesses, nonprofit organizations, media companies and charter schools, Yesilada and others familiar with the group have claimed. (Article continues.)

Notice in this article ... a Minnesota substitute teacher by the name of Amanda Getz who teaches in a Gulen Charter school (a K-through-8th-grade). I don't know if she is related to Joel Getz, affiliated with RYB in China?

The charter school movement was presented to the American people as a way to have more parental control over public school education. Charter schools are public schools financed by local taxpayers and federal grants.

Look What's Going On in Charter Schools April 10, 2012 
_https://www.creators.com/read/phyllis-schlafly/04/12/look-what-s-going-on-in-charter-schools

Charter schools have opened up a path for foreigners to run schools at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers, without much news coverage. One of the few breakthroughs in the media was a June 7, 2011, front-page article in The New York Times, which carried over to two full inside pages, about the many charter schools run by a secretive and powerful sect from Turkey called the Gulen Movement.

Headed by a Turkish preacher named Fethullah Gulen who had already founded a network of schools in 100 other countries, this movement opened its first U.S. charter school in 1999. Gulen's schools spread rapidly after he figured out how to work our system and get the U.S. taxpayers to import and finance his recruitment of followers for his worldwide religious and social movement.

The Gulen Movement now operates the largest charter school network in the United States. It has at least 135 schools, teaching more than 45,000 students in at least 26 states, financed by millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars a year.

In Texas, 36 Turkish charter schools, called the Harmony Network, have received over $100 million in government funds.

In Inver Grove Heights, Minn., a substitute teacher named Amanda Getz reported about what goes on inside a charter school called Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy, TIZA. TIZA is a K-through-8th-grade charter school funded by U.S. taxpayers and sponsored by Islamic Relief.

The teacher says there is no clear division between the subjects studied during school and the study of the Quran after school. She says that homework assignments for after-school religious instruction are written on the board right alongside assignments for math and social studies.

Getz says she was informed that, on Fridays, the Muslim holy day, there would be a school assembly in the gym after lunch. She was instructed to take her students before the assembly to the bathroom, four at a time, for "ritual washing," and afterwards "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap" led the students in Muslim prayers.

This school has only 300 students, but it has a waiting list of 1,500. TIZA shares its building with a mosque and also with the headquarters of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota."

This list of Gulen Schools was last updated on Nov 24, 2013. There is still a list under Turkey, which Erdogan probably closed down after the Coup.
China is not listed. Some Countries have entries for "Umbrella organizations" which are connected to the Gulen Charter schools.

LIST OF GULEN SCHOOLS (RUN BY FETHULLAH GULEN MOVEMENT) AROUND THE WORLD:
_http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/every-continent-but-antarctica.html

This is another site that gives info on the Gulen movement. What I found interesting, in describing how many of the Charter Schools was started in the U.S. , it also describes - how many of the schools affiliated with Gulen are lacking details to that fact, in the school applications. China's RYB schools may have been set up in the same way as an "Umbrella organization"?

Gulen charter schools 101
_http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/gulen-school-characteristics.html

Typically, teams of mostly Turkish-born scientists, academics, and businessmen form a non-profit and then submit a charter school application. Those applications portray the founders -- some of whom have only been living in the U.S. for a short time -- as individuals who decided to start a charter school because they care so deeply about American children. Many of the non-Turkish-born individuals who appear on the founding and governing boards can be tied to Gulenist "cultural" or "interfaith" organizations. The location where these efforts take place is highly-coordinated because the Gulenist expansion is an imperialistic campaign. For more explanation, read this page.

The charter school applications omit many important things. They make no mention of Fethullah Gulen or how the purpose of the school is to implement Gulen's educational philosophy and vision. The charter school applications make no mention about how the "international teachers" the schools plan to hire will exclusively be from Turkey (along with a few from other Turkic countries where the movement has made inroads). They do not mention that among the foreign languages to be offered will always be Turkish. The applications do not mention the emphasis that will be placed on Turkish cultural instruction. These things are not mentioned in the charter school applications because the Gulenist founders do not want to arouse suspicion. When questioned by reporters, school operators may admit that some staff members may be "Gulen-inspired."

Secrecy, denial, deflection of the truth, and strategic ambiguity are well worn pages in the Gulen Movement's playbook.

(U.S. Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security stated a suspicion about CIA involvement in funding the Gulen movement’s global projects (see section 12). )