A 15-YEAR-OLD boy known as Xinxin was found dead in bed by his father. The boy put a plastic bag around his head at around noon Wednesday at his home in Longgang District.

    Though the father, surnamed Liu, performed CPR to his son, the boy was declared dead after an ambulance arrived, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

    The parents said Xinxin sent a text message to a teacher asking for leave in his mother’s name Jan. 4, but was later found to have lied about his absence from school. The message read “Teacher Li, I am Xinxin’s mother. I will take him back to our hometown and will not return today. Please contact this number if anything comes up.”

    When the teacher found him out, Xinxin was asked to write a self-criticism that required signatures from both of his parents. When Xinxin’s teacher asked him to hand in the self-criticism, the boy said he had left it at home. Then the teacher asked Xinxin to call his parents, but the couple said they were not aware of the assignment.

    Longgang police announced Wednesday that they had received a call at 1:59 p.m. Wednesday from a woman who claimed her son had committed suicide at home. The police confirmed Xinxin’s death and didn’t find evidence of foul play.

    The school Xinxin attended, Xingwen School, expressed their sorrow for the family’s loss but said that to ask students to conduct self-criticism was an appropriate approach to educating students. Xinxin’s parents blame the school for not noticing the boy’s absence. They believe that the tragedy could have been avoided.

    As for Xinxin’s absence Jan. 4, the father was only told by Xinxin that he was going out to mail an article, but no one knew anything else.

    Both Xinxin’s teachers and parents said the boy was shy. (Zhang Qian, Li Jiaxin)