Child star in suicide bid ‘faced bullying’
The mother of a child star who attempted suicide last year has accused students at her daughter’s school of bullying and several teachers of tolerating the behaviour.
Ninth-grade pupil Shao Yibu, 15, jumped from the sixth floor window of a Shanghai building in November last year after experiencing long-term bullying at Xincheng School in the Minhang district of the city.
She was held for a short time by cable lines before falling and hitting the ground. She received serious injuries including damage to her pancreas, nose and several fractured bones. She was discharged from hospital in February after three months of treatment, news site Red Star News reported.
Yibu starred in the 2019 drama film Looking Up, starring mainland actor Deng Chao, and played a supporting role in the 2019 television series Zhu Meng Qing Yuan, starring actress Yang Mi.
Earlier this month, Yibu’s mother, You Yongmei, publicly accused 13 classmates of her daughter of bullying and the school’s principal, vice-principal and three teachers of tolerating the behaviour and demanded they be punished, in a Weibo post.
Yibu told her mother her classmates defamed her and isolated her out of jealousy of her child star status and for being a top student.
You said she only realised her daughter was being bullied in May last year when the girl’s form teacher, Lu Jing, allegedly called and told her: “Shao Yibu has been isolated by the whole class. She is arrogant at school, no one wants to stand with her and no one wants to interact with her.”
The teacher said Yibu had called a male student a “sissy” and mocked other students for wearing fake designer clothes and for poor academic performance.
You said when she asked her daughter about the claims the girl broke down in tears and said the teacher’s allegations were untrue.
According to the mother, Yibu said: “At first I asked them why they targeted me and made up rumours about me. They said it’s because they are jealous of me as I was often praised by teachers. So they were displeased with me.”
You asked Lu to investigate and tackle the issue. Some pupils and their parents later apologised, but others refused to acknowledge there was anything wrong with their behaviour, You said.
The bullying continued after this, Yibu said. Some students allegedly taunted her by saying: “Isn’t your father dead?”
After the suicide attempt, Yibu admitted she had been having suicidal thoughts for a long time. “I don’t want to live any longer. I don’t know how to get along with them for another year before graduation,” Yibu said.
She has since returned to the school and is preparing for the zhongkao, China’s secondary school entrance exam.
On Sunday, the education department of Minhang district said on Weibo it was taking the case seriously and had set up a team to supervise the school as it investigated the allegations.
Xincheng School could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.