In May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck China. At its epicenter in Wenchuan, Sichuan province, thousands of children lost their lives.
Many died at schools that collapsed into rubble; they were built to subpar standards so that developers and local officials could skim money off the top, effectively profiting off the students' lack of safety. When I visited Wenchuan soon after the quake, hundreds of children's backpacks were strewn across the ground.
When I saw those backpacks, I wanted to know to whom they belonged. But Chinese authorities used the natural disaster to avoid addressing campus construction issues, evading proper explanation about the students' deaths.