A RURAL teacher in Hubei Province is under investigation after a 7-year-old boy infected with genital human papillomavirus, or HPV, told authorities that the teacher had been raping him at school for about half a year, education authorities in the area said Sunday.

    The man, a 31-year-old teacher at a primary school in Wuxue, has been suspended from work after the boy identified him in photos and claimed two of his classmates also were victimized. Police were investigating. The man’s name wasn’t released.

    HPV can be contracted through sexual contact and can lead to genital warts and serious problems such as certain cancers.

    One of the other two classmates thought to be victims could not be reached, and the other’s grandmother denied that her grandson had been a victim.

    The boy confessed to his mother, a migrant worker in Guangzhou, after she found fleshy growths around his hip when he was picked up to spend summer vacation with his parents, a radio news outlet reported.

    The teacher took snacks to school every day for the children and told the boy to wait in a dark corner in the school’s bathroom, the boy said.

    Medical tests showed the boy had had anal sex within three months and had contracted venereal warts from an HPV infection. (SD-Agencies)