Ms. Ai Dan is a fourteen-year-old student in the eighth grade at Heyeping Middle School in the Suxian District, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province. She started practicing Falun Gong in 1998.

At the Heyeping Middle School, Ai Dan talked to her teachers and classmates about Falun Gong. She explained what Falun Gong is and why the persecution is wrong. By the second semester of 2001 some of her classmates had read the Falun Gong books and wanted to learn the practice. One of her classmates, who did not know the facts about Falun Gong and was deceived by the propaganda from the government-controlled media, reported Ai Dan to her teacher. Because she was afraid of getting involved, the teacher reported her to the school authorities. The school’s headmaster, Hu Ge, then reported her to the district “610 Office”1 and confiscated her Falun Gong book. Hu Ge chastised Ai Dan, "How dare you teach other students to practice Falun Gong!"

Officials from the “610 Office” came to the school immediately, ordered the students out of their classes and interrogated them. They forced Ai Dan and the other students to write “guarantee statements,” declaring that they were remorseful for practicing Falun Gong, guaranteeing not to practice Falun Gong again, and promising not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong or to ever again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

After the incident was over, Ai Dan felt very upset. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt: “There is nothing wrong with following ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance’ to be a good person. Nor is it wrong to hope that my classmates and teachers care about morality, or that they are kind and good people. How could I write a guarantee to promise not to be a good person?” She went back to the school and submitted a declaration to the headmaster, stating her determination to practice Falun Gong. The school officials tried to intimidate her, saying, “You have to quit school if you want to practice Falun Gong.” Ai Dan was expelled from the school.

Ai Dan's parents tried everything to enable her to continue her education. They contacted another school, and paid an extra charge of 2000 Yuan (500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China). Finally, Ai Dan was allowed to go to school. Officials from Heyeping Middle School, however, came to Ai Dan's new school to turn the authorities there against her, making every effort to prevent her from going to school. As a result, her new school also expelled her.