Strangers lock crying tot in airplane bathroom to ‘educate her’
They put her under out-house arrest.
Two female airline passengers have sparked an online debate after they locked a stranger’s crying child in the bathroom to “educate her,” as seen in a video blowing up online.
The incident transpired on August 24 on a Juneyao Airlines flight from Guiyang to Shanghai, China, CNN reported.
The tyke, who was traveling with her grandparents, reportedly sobbed non-stop during the nearly three-hour flight, the airline wrote in a statement posted to Chinese social media.
Fed up with the tot’s inflight tantrum, the aforementioned female travelers reportedly transported her to the bathroom to “educate her.” Shockingly, the child’s grandmother consented to this toilet timeout.
The punitive pair then shared the video of this alleged “potty training” on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
In the clip, the punitive pair can be seen seated in the locked lavatory with the wailing infant, who was reportedly just one year old.
One of the women is heard saying, “If you stop crying, auntie will take you back to grandma” and “We won’t let you out unless you stop crying.”
Gou was initially proud of her cruel and unusual-seeming form of discipline.
In the aforementioned post, she wrote that the tantrum was so disruptive that “many passengers were using tissues to block their ears” while others “had moved to the back of the plane to escape the noise.”
Meanwhile, the little girl’s mother, who was not on the plane, reportedly sympathized with the self-appointed airplane posse’s behavior, the airline wrote in a statement.
The video was subsequently deleted following the uproar.
Meanwhile, Juneyao Airlines’ reps have since condemned the pairs’ actions and apologized for the incident and “oversight of the crew,” the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
However, the lavatory lockup disturbed social media users, who thought that the punishment didn’t fit the cry.
“Adults in their 30s can have emotional breakdowns, but people don’t allow toddlers to have theirs,” snarked one Weibo critic about the overzealous-seeming clampdown.
Another wrote, “The grandmother and the two aunts should be sued, and social services should intervene. If there are parents like this, children will suffer in the future.”
“When will these people understand that babies have the right to cry and the right to travel, they are part of society, and so are babies!!!!!!!” declared a third.
A fourth exclaimed, “We were all once children … Don’t be a cold-blooded adult.”
Surprisingly, some agreed with the aforementioned duo’s actions, writing, “To be honest, some children cannot do without some education.”