Honour Student at City and Provincial Levels Barred from High School

I was born on January 20, 1987, and now I am forced to be homeless to avoid police harassment and persecution.

Since the persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999, I followed my parents to Beijing twice to appeal. I was beaten, abused, threatened and subjected to extortion by lawless policemen. Furthermore, I was illegally detained, photographed against my will, interrogated, handcuffed and confined in a solitary cell. After I returned, my schoolmaster, teachers, and personal friends, sent by different levels of the education bureaus, "talked" with me, and tried to force me to write a "Guarantee Statement."[1] I refused, so they took away all my honours including Student Leader, Provincial Level Pacesetter, City Level Excellent Student Award and Junior Reporter of Chinese Youth Newspaper. They told me that I wouldn't be qualified for nomination in the future. They also disciplined me with school-level public criticism and removed my Young Pioneer title.

On each government holiday, my schoolteachers called me in to see them both morning and evening and forbid me to travel or even go outside. During the National Day [October 1] holiday in 1999, after consulting with my school, a police station illegally detained me for ten days. During this period, the teachers and the schoolmaster gave me "ideology education" and tried to force me to tell them the whereabouts of my parents. I was deeply hurt mentally. My classmates looked at me with strange looks. Sometimes when I was in class, I would be asked to leave, by the teacher saying, "A leader from the education bureau wants to talk with you. You should just listen and say nothing." If I told them my thoughts, they would chide me for being too stubborn to be changed and another "ideology education" would be arranged for me. Such a life lasted till I graduated from primary school.

When I was preparing to enter high school, I visited many secondary schools, but all refused to accept me just because I practise Falun Dafa. They all said, "No matter how excellent you are, we won't accept you because your case involves the matter of politics". Typically, once I had already paid the tuition, when the secondary school went to my former school to get my student records, they discovered on my record that I "practise Falun Gong, went to Beijing to appeal many times, and refused to change after repeated persuasion" etc. They returned my payment and said, "You should write a guarantee of not practising any more, then we could consider whether to accept you or not."

Finally, I was assigned to a secondary school near my home. When I went to register, the schoolmaster twice gave me the excuse of being busy, and asked me to come back later. But later when I finally met him, he said, "Our school refuses Falun Gong so we cannot accept you. This is what the city's Education Bureau instructed, thus I have no choice." Just before the new term began, I went to school to tell them, "You can't deprive me of my right to education." But they said, "You must write a guarantee to promise that you will not practise Falun Gong any more and will not go to Beijing to appeal again. And you must also write a repentance statement. Then we will see whether you have really transformed. If not, we'll continue to transform you. If you don't write, we can do nothing even if you come every day." I insisted on not writing the "guarantee." I have visited this school four or five times, and wrote letters and made phone calls, however, they showed no response.

I have not been able to go to school for over a year. Since my parents were illegally arrested and sentenced to forced labour, I cannot return home and have to stay with others. At the beginning of a new term, I went to a secondary school to study. However, in less than two months they found that I was a Falun Gong practitioner. Thus they tried hard to find an excuse to not let me go to school.

Several days ago, I went with my aunt to see the schoolmaster of that secondary school and hoped she could solve my problem. But the schoolmaster said, "We won't accept you. Even if you write a guarantee, we won't consider accepting you." My aunt said, "Are you really unconcerned when seeing that this child is not being able to go to school?" She answered, "I can't do anything; you have to solve it by yourself. It's useless to seek my help. You have to ask higher authorities to solve the problem."

I really want to study, but they have denied my right to pursue my education.

[1] The so-called "Guarantee Statement" is a statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/23/48903.html