Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra.
Authorities search the schoolhouse rubble after the blast.
Sitting at their desks in the Fanglin village school, she and her classmates each made 20 firecrackers per day that her teachers sold to middlemen who sold them to factories. Making fireworks is hard. It's also hazardous, especially when the workers are children who shouldn't be playing with fireworks, much less manufacturing them. Last week an explosion ripped apart Zhang's school in Jiangxi province, killing more than 40 students and teachers and shedding stark light on the dangerous prevalence of child labor in China and on a political culture that can make anything, even the accidental death of schoolchildren, into a political loyalty test. Almost immediately after the tragedy, local officials cordoned off the area, bulldozing the school's debris and warning peasants to stop talking to the Chinese reporters who descended on the village and began writing about what they saw and heard.