Teacher admits leaving pupils behind as he fled Chinese earthquake (New Olympic sprint contender)

In an act of moral foolhardiness, Fan Meizhong set out on a blog his guiding principle: in matters of life and death, it's every man for himself.

When the quake struck, rather than overseeing an orderly evacuation, he said he just shouted "Stay calm, it's an earthquake!" and ran for it without looking back to see if his pupils were following.

"I ran towards the stairs so fast that I stumbled and fell as I went. When I reached the centre of the football pitch, I found I was the first to escape. None of my pupils was with me," wrote the man now known across China as 'Runner Fan'.

When his pupils began to arrive, they asked: "Teacher, why didn't you bring us out?"

His explanation was simple. "I have a very strong sense of self-preservation," he said. "I have never been a brave man and I'm only really concerned about myself."

While newspapers have largely followed instructions to concentrate on uplifting tales of rescue work since the earthquake, the internet has seen a wild variety of tales emerge.

It was internet sites that first reported the quake, and where some of the first pictures of collapsed schools were posted. Internet users have debated how to apportion blame for shoddy building work, as well as rallying praise for emergency services and politicians seen to have done a good job.

Other local officials have been vilified by name for a variety of offences, some relatively trivial, such as smiling too much during visits by their superiors.

Some plotlines have been wild, such as those which have discussed whether fortune-tellers could have foretold disaster, but few have hit upon such a sensitive topic as Mr Fan.

He was not the first to raise the issue. Many news reports have focused on stories of teachers putting children first, almost certainly representing the vast majority, such as that of another teacher, Tan Qianqiu, whose body was found shielding four of his pupils, all of them alive.

But some schools were uneasy that their teachers had a higher survival rate than pupils.

One such was Juyuan School, where hundreds of pupils died - parents say 500 to 700 though the official number is 278 out of 900 - but only six out of 80 teachers. Parents pointed out that teachers stood nearest the doors.

But Mr Fan went further, attempting to justify his abandonment of his pupils, who all survived the quake.

"I didn't cause the earthquake, so I have no reason to feel guilty," he said in an interview. "When I got back to the classroom, the students were all fine."

He also risked angering those closer to him, saying he would not have tried to save his own mother if she had been present, though he might have made an exception to his general rule for his one-year-old daughter.

He pointed out that education law does not demand that a teacher save his pupils during an earthquake.

"If every teacher was like Mr Tan, then we'd have no more heroes," he said. "I admire heroes like Mr. Tan, but I can't do that myself. I love my life more."

Now the head of the private school where Mr Fan worked is under pressure to fire the teacher, and publicly questioned Mr Fan's wisdom in being so frank. Running might be a normal reaction, he said, but talking about it afterwards was something else entirely.

One commentator in a state newspaper, the Shanghai Daily, described Mr Fan as a "courageous coward" for admitting what happened - but added that his courage was not sufficient to exonerate his cowardice.

Mr Fan may as he said have been trying to prick the hypocrisy of "insincere tears", the commentator said.

"Yes, there are insincere tears but you, Fan Meizhong, should have challenged hypocrisy with sincere tears," he wrote.

Hmm...

The journalist who wrote this story is in Beijing, and the article contains direct quotes from this man, who is now facing a possible firing over his decision. I don’t understand at all where you are coming from saying that it can’t be true because there are too many “China Haters”.

My opinion of this man - whom I would consider a coward - has nothing to do with the fact that he is Chinese, or that he lives in China, or that I am anti-Communist (which incidently has everything to do with the Chinese GOVERNMENT, and nothing to do with being anti-Chinese - as in Chinese PEOPLE). My thinking he is a coward has EVERYTHING to do with the content of this man’s character, and judging by his words, and his actions...

Just FYI: I thought it might interest you to know that this story was originally reported on May 29, 2008 in the Shanghai Daily Newspaper - in Shanghai, CHINA.

Here is the original story...
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200805/20080530/article_361279.htm

Honesty not enough to make a coward a hero

By Wang Yong | 2008-5-30 | NEWSPAPER EDITION

FAN Meizhong is a courageous coward.

He is cowardly because he left all his students behind as he ran out to escape the earthquake that rocked his middle school in Sichuan on May 12.

He is courageous because he later posted his otherwise unknown cowardice on the Internet and defended it vehemently.

“I ran as fast as I could, almost on all fours, to the football field. I found myself the first person there. I saw nothing of my students,” he said. When his students finally found their way to the playground, they asked him: “Teacher, why didn’t you bring us out?’’

Here is his answer: “I’m not the sort of person who is ready to sacrifice his life. I care only about my own life. Don’t you know that? At another time one night I also ran quickly away from a fire emergency!’’

He later told his students: “Although I strive for freedom and fairness, I will not sacrifice myself to help others. At this critical time of life and death, I can only think about sacrificing myself for my daughter. I will not consider saving anyone else, not even my mother. I am not strong enough to carry an adult out of danger.’’

On May 25, he posted another article, explaining why he wrote the first one. One major reason, he said, was to “fight against hypocrisy.’’

“There are genuine sorrows for the dead but there’s no shortage of insincere tears,’’ he said.

Yes, there are insincere tears but you, Fan Meizhong, should have challenged hypocrisy with sincere tears.

At the beginning of his May 22 article, he said: “How I wanted to die because I was not born in the US - land of freedom and of human rights!’’

Send him to America and see if Americans will dare or care enough to take him.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.