China quake-fleeing teacher forces change in ethics

A woman holding a portrait of her dead son Zhang Chao speaks to a journalist as she and more than 100 parents attend a memorial service at the destroyed Fuxing primary school in the earthquake-hit Wufu town in Mianzhu county, Sichuan province, May 21, 2008.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese high school teacher who controversially fled a classroom before his students during last month's devastating earthquake has compelled China to amend laws governing teacher-student ethics.

Fan Meizhong, a literature teacher at a private high school in quake-ravaged Dujiangyan in southwest Sichuan province, was branded "Running Fan" by local media and Internet users and later sacked after he defended his cowardice in a lengthy online essay.

"At such a life-or-death moment, I would only consider sacrificing my life for my daughter. I would not do it for anyone else, even my mother," Fan wrote on a popular online portal.

None of the children in his class died in the quake.

The education ministry had made protecting students the "moral responsibility of a teacher" for the first time in a draft revision of existing ethics regulations, Friday's China Daily said.

"The revision ... says teachers should 'be good mentors and helpful friends'," the paper said.

It came after Fan threatened to sue education authorities, saying chivalry was not a part of his job description.

The 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 killed more than 70,000 people, including thousands of children at their desks in what many parents believe were shoddily made school buildings.

Despite a massive outpouring of charity in the wake of the quake, Chinese bloggers have been quick to round on those deemed unsympathetic.

Movie actress Sharon Stone drew scathing criticism late last month after suggesting that "karma" might have played a part in causing the earthquake after China's crackdown on unrest in ethnic Tibetan areas in March.