Study pressure drives pupils to flee home

The pressures for school studies drove six elementary students to escape home on Saturday. The local police eventually found them on a beach and handed them over to their families, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Sunday.

The report said one of the parents of the missing girls found a note at home, saying "Dear mom and dad please don't look for us," which was co-signed by other five girls from the same school in the Luohu district, Shenzhou, Guangdong province.

It was not a suicide letter, but it had words about their discontent with their family upbringing and their grades failed their parents' expectations.

At 11 pm Saturday, one escaping student came back home out of "fear", while the other five were found at a net bar near a local beach by the school and local police at 3 am on Sunday.

The school headmaster said the students "planned" on this escape and it was because their parents pressured them too much on their studies, the report said.