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Up until this year's Spring semester, parents of the students in Beijing's Haidian Experimental Primary School could see a grey-haired policeman, who showed up on 6:30 am every weekday, at the school gate.
Despite bad weather, Gao Baolai, in his fifties, had served as a patron saint for children for five years, even after he was diagnosed with cancer.
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Gao in his office [Photos/bjby.bjwmb.gov.cn] |
Five years ago, he was assigned to work in the district. Although he had to deal with many problems in the new position, Gao took the security of students during peak school hours as the top priority. The area around the school was crowded with parents' cars, so that the students had to walk in heavy traffic, which posed serious security risks.
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Gao escorts a student in traffic flow during rush hour.[Photos/bjby.bjwmb.gov.cn] |
After several days' observation, Gao found that the parents parked their cars on the roadside and got out to escort their children to the school gate. The randomly-parked cars were the main cause for traffic jams and potential dangers outside the campus.
Gao decided to accompany the students from the cars to the school so the cars could leave as soon as possible and the traffic jams would decrease. From then on, he appeared in a fixed position outside the school much earlier than most students and picked them up when they arrived, allowing the cars to leave at once and not block the road.
People were shocked to hear that the kind-hearted police officer suffered from cancer. They donated 360,000 yuan ($56,250) to show their gratitude to him, but, unfortunately, he passed away. Gao's spirit of selfless dedication has had an everlasting influence on society.
