A mother in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China was stripped of her rights to care for her daughter after she abused the 12-year-old girl for not “keeping up” with her studies.
According to China Press, the court made a ruling on 20 April to appoint the girl’s grandmother as her legal guardian.
The girl, identified as Jiajia, is currently in the sixth grade of a primary school. When she was four years old, her parents got a divorce and she has since been living with her mother.
Although Jiajia’s grandparents don’t live with her, they would often pick her up from school. In 2018, her grandmother began noticing that Jiajia had various scars on her face and body.
After questioning Jiajia, the girl admitted that her mother would often give her extra homework, and if she could not complete them in time, her mother would verbally abuse or even beat her.
In April 2020, Jiajia’s mother threw a book on her head after she did not recite a text properly, causing her face and forehead to become swollen. Seeing that her granddaughter was repeatedly injured, Jiajia’s grandmother called the police for help.
But because Jiajia’s injuries were not severe, the police just issued a warning letter to the mother, prohibiting her from any domestic violence against Jiajia.
However, the warning letter did not stop the mother from abusing Jiajia. In January 2021, she scratched Jiajia’s face with her nails because she did not complete a test paper, and later in March, she used a hot spatula to hit Jiajia’s hand because she did not complete her homework.
She would even force Jiajia to master college-level English and would beat and scold her if she was dissatisfied.
Jiajia’s grandmother said she would get calls from the child in the evening saying that she doesn’t have any food. Furthermore, the beating and scolding had caused Jiajia to suffer physically and mentally until she no longer wanted to go to school.
Meanwhile, Jiajia’s father was asked to take his daughter into his care, but he failed to take any active measures as he claimed he had no permanent residence, and therefore would not be able to guarantee a good life for Jiajia.
Jiajia’s grandmother filed a lawsuit against the parents as she believed they could not perform their duties as Jiajia’s legal guardians. The court later ruled that Jiajia’s grandmother would officially become her legal guardian.
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