An expat teacher has been fired from his job at a Beijing kindergarten after an online video purporting to show a case of child abuse attracted a wide scale of attention over the weekend.

The 10-second-long video shows the teacher roughly picking up a seated student by the arm, only to put him down awkwardly. Afterwards, the teacher uses his hand to swat the child on his head, and then raises his foot against the child, actions characterized by Chinese news as "abuse."

The child's appearance has been partially obscured in the video, but New Beijing Times has verified the kindergarten to be the Aofangxing All-Foreign Teacher's Kindergarten in building 10 of the Shijicheng Cuidieyuan neighborhood in Beijing's Haidian District.

On Sunday, a teacher at the kindergarten named Shao said the school did not want to immediately fire the teacher over the "accidental situation," saying that the kindergarten was going to conduct an investigation after the holiday was over.

"This black teacher usually treats the children very well," said Shao. "The children and parents are usually very approving of him. It's likely that the child was misbehaving at the time, and the teacher decided to discipline him."

Shao also said the kindergarten will discuss the issue with parents first. "We will respect the opinion of parents," said Shao.

However, the kindergarten decided to fire the expat teacher later the same afternoon due to "excessive behavior that had negative ramifications."

The expat teacher has been identified as "Imon" from the USA, while the boy has been revealed to be four years old. Chinese news reports of the story so far have not included statements from Imon, the boy, or the boy's family. Likewise, the context in which the video was recorded in has also not been publicly explained.

The principal of the year-old school assured reporters that all required certifications have been met, saying that the kindergarten has a business license, and is still awaiting a response from the Education Bureau.

The principal said Imon had been qualified for the position. "He had all the academic credentials, but needed to go back to his country for a criminal check," said the principal.

The kindergarten has two expat teachers who are assisted by a local resident. The kindergarten principal suspects Imon's assistant to be the one who recorded and then leaked the video of the incident, saying: "I had asked her not to use her phone during work hours on two previous occasions."

News regarding abuse in kindergartens have been commonly reported in China, usually involving surreptitiously-recorded video surveillance. However, a number of Chinese netizens do not agree with the way the expat teacher has been treated:

莫疏梨：

Frankly speaking, if this is considered to be abuse, then it's very mild abuse. This doesn't look to be severe at all. 兮木無枝_：

If this is considered to be abuse, then what my school teacher did to me back during elementary school can be considered to be 'murder.' He actually used a broom to beat us! 爱吃瓜子的猫199306：

People: the term "abuse" is too heavy a term to be used in this situation. 爱吃瓜子的猫199306：

So when I was in elementary school and had my head beaten in by my teacher, should I have reported on her? 找不到家的鸟hyh：

This is considered to be abuse? Now I finally understand why children are so pampered these days.

On the other hand, this incident proved to be a source of anger for other netizens with disagreed with the majority:

东方朔365 ：

Speaking honestly, foreign teachers are mostly losers. They come to China because they are given the opportunity to make a lot of money here, something Chinese people put up with! 行走的魔箴 ：

Is this black person working on a special permit? Why are so many employment qualifications necessary for Chinese workers, but there aren't any for these laowai that keep ending up in bad situations? Today's China has become so strong that there is no need to worship foreigners! 兔子夫人mrs：

So many people in these comments unexpectedly siding with the black teacher. I just hope that you will be just as open-minded when your own child is picked up like that! 霹雳球球：

(To netizens supporting the expat teacher) You're a bunch of moral hypocrites; this (expletive) black (pejorative) should go to hell.

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Twitter: @Sinopath

Images: Aihami,iFeng(1)