Mother Throws Her Daughter’s Smartphone into a Canal

 One morning when dropping off her daughter at my school, a mother threw her daughter’s iPhone into a canal* that was near the school entrance.  The daughter was distraught, as would be expected.  I witnessed her and some of her classmates standing at the edge of  the canal wondering how to retrieve the phone.  Onlookers urged her to swim in the dirty water and get it.  She would have nothing to do with this.

Her father came to the rescue.  He hired a person with diving equipment to go into the water and find the phone.  This cost about 2,000 RMB.  (The IPhone probably cost about 12,000) The next day, the student happily showed off her phone, which was working fine.  It had been in the water for about eighteen hours.

Why did her mother throw the phone into the canal?  She was not happy with her daughter’s academic performance.

*there are pictures of the canal to be found in this blog, like in the previous entry.