A 10-year-old boy was found dead after he hanged himself on the windowsill in his bedroom in Guangzhou's Panyu district on Thursday afternoon. Not long before, he'd written in his diary, "I only got 39 in my English exam. I regret that I didn't listen to my grandma yesterday. I'll spend more time reviewing my lessons next time before the exam".
Xiao Huan's family is originally from Jiangxi province, according to Yangcheng Evening News. He was a grade five primary school student and lived with his grandparents in Panyu district while his parents worked in Jiangsu.
He responded to his grandma with a smile and then went to his bedroom to do his homework. "There was no sign that his mood was any different," said his grandma.
At around 5:30 p.m., she went to fetch her grandson for dinner. Upon pushing the door open, she was stunned to see Xiao Huan kneeling at the windowsill, with his feet cushioned by a pillow. A rope was connected to his neck, and the other end was fastened to the weld mesh of the windowsill.
She rushed to move him but found that his lips had turned purple. Paramedics pronounced the boy dead at the scene and police ruled out the possibility of murder.
Xiao Huan's cousin, who is in his class, told the family that he was made to stand up for ten minutes in school on Thursday morning.
His family believes the punishment he received in school along with study pressures are to blame for his death.
Mr. Huang, Xiao Huan's teacher, told reporters that he had actually made some progress in this mid-term exams. Although he didn't score very well in English, he'd passed both in Math and Chinese.