A joint investigation team in Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area said on Sept. 22 that kitchen surveillance footage and interviews confirmed "serious problems" with hygiene management at the Affiliated Kindergarten of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Xinhua reported.

The principal, surnamed Zou, deliberately concealed problems in the canteen and failed to fix them, while the deputy principal in charge of logistics, surnamed Qin, neglected day-to-day management, the team found. Both were removed from their posts and a cook surnamed Zhang was fired.

Kitchen staff wash items in a food-washing sink at the kindergarten in Nanjing, China. Photo from Weibo

Eleven officials from Pancheng subdistrict, the area's market regulation bureau and its education bureau received penalties including serious intra-party warnings and major administrative demerits for failing to respond effectively when children fell ill and for weak follow-up supervision.

The team apologized to the affected children and their parents.

The children became ill on June 30, the last day of the spring semester, with nausea and vomiting during and after lunch.

The former teacher, whom The Beijing News identified by the pseudonym Wang Chang, was the kindergarten's health teacher and canteen safety officer at the time. She told the newspaper she estimated on the day that 40 to 50 children were unwell, and that pupils in five classes showed symptoms.

Parents repeatedly asked the kindergarten for the cause but had received no formal answer by the time the new term began in September.

Wang resigned on Sept. 11 after a dispute with the principal. Three days later she filed a complaint with the area's discipline inspection commission and posted on WeChat and Xiaohongshu that cooks washed mops and drain covers in the wok, used washing sinks interchangeably, and soaked mosquito nets in disinfectant and scrubbed shoes in the vegetable sink.

She said she had reported the violations to the kindergarten's management many times since joining in August 2022, to no effect.

"I had misgivings, because I might not be able to find work after going public. But if I said nothing, I would feel guilty," she told The Beijing News, adding that she weighed the decision for two days and two nights.

The university's publicity department filed a complaint seeking the removal of her Xiaohongshu post, arguing that she had published problems the kindergarten had already fixed and misled parents, according to Wang.

On Sept. 16, parents who demanded to see surveillance recordings found footage from June 29, the day before the children fell ill, showing a mop being washed in the wok, she said.

The cause of the vomiting had still not been determined as of Sept. 23, Jiemian News reported.

A parent told the outlet that the kindergarten has since replaced its principal and kitchen team. The public kindergarten opened in September 2022 as a joint project between the university and Jiangbei New Area, and had about 300 children in 10 classes at the end of last semester.

Some Chinese internet users have demanded criminal charges, but Guo Xueliang, a lawyer at Beijing Zhicheng Law Firm, told Jiemian News that the evidence made public so far does not meet the threshold for a conviction, though the kindergarten and the individuals involved should bear administrative liability.

Wang expects to struggle to find another job and plans to try running a street stall once the case is settled.

"I know I spoke up very late, but I hope that at least the children there now and those who enroll later can eat a clean meal," she said.