Teacher arrested for allegedly raping 12 students  

贵州老师涉强奸12名女生被捕 最小受害者仅8岁

The photo shows the primary school in Nanfeng village, Bijie city, Southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo: Beijing News]

A primary school teacher has been arrested for allegedly raping at least 12 students, the youngest being eight years old, in Nanfeng village, Bijie city, southwest China's Guizhou province.

The suspect is a 30-year-old male that is a fourth-grade teacher in the village. He is suspected of raping at least 12 students from grades two, four and six. The suspect himself is married with a three-year-old child of his own, according to a Beijing News report on Wednesday.

All 12 alleged victims have been taken to the hospital by authorities for body inspections; however, the results have not been released to the parents or the public.

Reportedly, the sexual abuse started happening around 2012. One parent of an alleged victim said that the suspect would sexually abuse children in a restroom beside his classroom. The parent added that the victims] were threatened by the teacher and dared not tell others about the abuse.

Most of the victims are "left-behind" children whose parents are migrant workers employed in faraway cities.

The city of Bijie is located in the mountain region of northwest Guizhou, where many adults support their families as migrant workers. Because of the lack of supervision, many incidents of abuse, neglect and misconduct involving these children occur.