On September 1st, the first day of school in the fall, a large number of police officers were dispatched to schools in Xiangyang, Hubei to conduct surprise checks on students for prohibited items. After videos related to the incident were posted online, they sparked a wave of mockery from netizens, leading the Xiangyang Public Security to delete the videos.
The official Weibo account of the Xiangyang Public Security in Hubei posted a video on September 1st showing a large group of police officers entering the Xiangyang High-Tech Foreign Language School. They conducted thorough searches of students’ belongings to check for prohibited items such as “controlled tools, flammable and explosive materials, prohibited electronic products,” with the aim of eliminating “security risks at the source.” The targets of the searches were students ranging from elementary to junior high school aged.
In the video, besides meticulously searching through students’ school bags and desks, the police officers also used metal detectors to individually scan students’ luggage and beddings, with the level of scrutiny resembling airport security checks.
Many netizens criticized the actions in the comment section of the video, saying, “These are students, I thought they were criminals,” “Is this a rehabilitation center?” “Prisons should be managed this way,” “So many kids under 18 are going to prison,” “Ah, I feel like there’s no hope, let it be like this.”
Due to public pressure, the Xiangyang Public Security has since deleted the related videos.
Public records show that the Xiangyang High-Tech Foreign Language School was established in June 2012, and it is a boarding school offering combined primary, junior high, and high school education. As of 2024, the school had a total of more than 3,500 students and teachers.
In addition to the above actions, according to mainland China’s JiMu News, to “eliminate various safety risks,” on August 25th, the Xiangyang City Public Security Bureau’s Xiangcheng District Gu City Police Station organized police officers to conduct inspections in various primary and secondary schools and kindergartens within their jurisdiction, inspecting teaching buildings, classrooms, dormitories, cafeterias, and other areas.
Xiangyang City in Hubei is not an isolated case.
According to the Xinjing News, on September 1st, the first day of the new school year in Beijing for primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, Beijing police mobilized various forces and local police stations, along with school security personnel, to conduct large-scale targeted inspections in all primary and secondary schools and kindergartens across the city to “ensure zero safety threats.” At the same time, the police also conducted inspections in alleys and traffic routes around school campuses.
Furthermore, starting from September 1st, Beijing police also activated a “peak duty” mechanism, implementing a standard of “one police officer per school site” to station officers at all primary and secondary schools and kindergartens throughout the city, intensifying inspections of rental houses, gaming rooms, stores, and supermarkets around school campuses. During this period, over 1,200 public security officers and more than 5,000 police officers were mobilized daily across the city.