Failed music students tried to commit suicide

EIGHT students told to quit a Beijing music school due to poor academic performances sought to commit suicide together, it was reported yesterday.

One student from the Chinese Music Conservatory Middle School is being treated in the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital for attempted suicide; three have returned home; and four remain missing, the Beijing Times reported.

The 10th-graders at the school's vocal department were told to leave before the end of August because they had failed more than one-third of their required courses.

The 16-year-olds bought sleeping pills and decided to die together, according to the girl, who has not been named, receiving hospital treatment, the report said.

Chinese Music Conservatory is investigating and has promised to publish its findings within 10 days.

The school has strict rules but some students are weak and don't know how to handle pressure, said a teacher, who asked to remain anonymous.

This group of students chose suicide to escape frustrations, added the teacher.

On hearing that she had been dismissed from the school, one of the students is said to have told her mother that "she felt terribly sorry" and asked her family "to pretend she never lived," the newspaper said.

Both the school and parents should reflect on the incident, Zong Chunshan, an official with a Beijing teenager consultation center, told the newspaper.

The school should give students more opportunities, while parents need to listen to their children, as teenagers let out their negative thoughts in extreme ways, said Zong.

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