December 29, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 30, 1429

SHANGHAI, Dec 28: Community protests pushed a Beijing school to postpone hiring a teacher who abandoned his students during the May 12 earthquake in China, state media reported on Sunday.

The behaviour of Fan Meizhong, better known as “Running Fan” after he admitted to fleeing his classroom near the epicentre of the May 12 quake, prompted the government to write new ethics rules for teachers.

After months out of the public eye, Fan resurfaced last week when Keyfind Education School, a private institution in Beijing, announced last week it had signed a two-year contract with him.

However, the school told Xinhua on Sunday it had decided to “indefinitely delay hiring Fan”. But the school insisted it did not regret its decision to give him a chance.

Earlier this year when China had been busy portraying the heroic actions of ordinary people in the 8.0-magnitude quake that hit Sichuan province, Fan became the subject of a frenzied media debate on his actions.

None of his students died and the focus of the debate was not so much his spur-of-the-moment escape but an online post he wrote 10 days later, detailing how he explained to his students that he dashed to the door for his daughter’s sake.

Internet users castigated him, calling for his dismissal, although some rushed to his defence saying he had done what a lot of others probably did too.—AFP