A Teacher's scolding pushed six Hubei teenagers onto a trip that ended in the Shenzhen aid center Sunday.

Five Junior Two students aged 14-16 of Xiaoqiao Middle School, Wuxue City in Hubei, took a train to Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province on April 16. A classmate joined them two days later after he tracked them through the Internet. The six arrived in Shenzhen on April 19, spent one day in an amusement park, one night in a cheap hotel, and had to sleep on street benches for two days until they found shelter at the city's aid center.

The six took more than 1,000 yuan (US$121) with them when they left home but soon ran out of money. They couldn't find work and went to the aid center for help. The aid center called their parents who later took them home.

One of the runaways, surnamed Wu, said he ran away because they couldn't do a math problem.

"The new mathematics teacher told us to get out of the classroom when we failed to solve a problem," Wu said. "We decided to leave school the next day." He also complained other teachers at the school beat students, and said only five out of the 80 students in his class had never been beaten.

A teacher surnamed Zhou denied the accusation. "They were just finding an excuse." He said the students walked out for fun.

Some parents said they knew nothing about teachers beating students, others said beating was not a big concern as long as teachers didn't hit students on the head.

(Shenzhen Daily April 28, 2005)