China's Tragic Aftershocks
GALLERY: China's Tragic Aftershocks
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A country in shock: At 2:28 p.m. on May 12, a massive earthquake devastated China's Sichuan province and surrounding areas, killing an estimated 68,500 people and leaving at least 11 million homeless. But it is the unexpected deaths of thousands of schoolchildren that have shaken Chinese most.
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Forlorn hope: Anxious parents sit in front of backpacks, awaiting news of their children at the primary school in Hongbai.
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Heartbreak: Zheng Rongchong grieves for her 10-year-old daughter, who died along with 127 other students at the Fuxin Primary School in Wufu. The New York Times estimates that, overall, at least 10,000 students and teachers died in collapsed schools during the earthquake.
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Moment of silence: Parents in Wufu mourn the loss of their children, who died at Fuxin Primary School. Across Sichuan, parents are trying to pressure their local governments into investigating the corruption that led to the shoddy construction of thousands of schools. In one town, parents stood on the rubble of a collapsed school and held a banner that said, “While we cannot stop a natural disaster, human errors are the most hated.”
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Bitter march: Holding pictures of their lost children, angry parents in Mianzhu besiege government officials with complaints during a protest march. The Education Ministry in Beijing has said that officials found to be negligent would be “severely punished.”
 A mothers anguish: A mother mourns as Chinese soldiers take away the body of her child, who was killed in a school collapse in Dujiangyan. On May 21, more than 200 parents of children from the Xinjian Primary School demonstrated in front of a temporary education office in Dujiangyan, demanding that local officials be held accountable. |
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