A woman in the southern Guangdong province has been detained for sharing false information online claiming her daughter suffered health problems after being physically abused by her teacher.

On Monday, the public security bureau in Guangzhou’s Baiyun District said the parent, surnamed Liu, had been criminally detained on suspicion of “seriously disrupting public order, causing a bad societal impact, and picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” According to the police, Liu had hired people to spread false information in order to receive compensation from the school and get the head first-grade teacher fired.

On Saturday, the parent in question shared photos of her daughter’s school uniform covered in “blood” on microblog Weibo. She claimed her asthmatic 6-year-old had had developed health complications after being tormented by the head teacher, Liu Yan, in December.

The parent claimed her daughter had coughed up blood after the teacher forced the 6-year-old to run 10 laps around an outdoor track as punishment, according to screenshots of the now-deleted Weibo post shared online. The mother also said she had given the teacher 60,000 yuan ($8,400) to “take special care” of her daughter, and that the educator had attacked her once to stop her from complaining to the school.

On Sunday, the Baiyun District education bureau said Liu Yan had in fact made several students run 10 laps for violating school rules, and surveillance footage did not show any of the abnormalities alleged by the parent. The educator was reprimanded and suspended from her position as head teacher, the education bureau said.

In an earlier statement Sunday, the Baiyun District public security bureau said the parent, Liu, had admitted spreading false accusations against the teacher to “increase influence.” Police added that the blood found on the child’s school uniform was fake, and there was no medical certificate confirming that the daughter had coughed blood or even suffered from asthma.

Sun Jiaqi, a partner at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, told Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper that the mother may face criminal liability for defamation or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a verdict that could result in up to five years in prison, or five to 10 years for severe cases.

On Monday, Weibo said it had suspended Liu’s microblogging account for violating its terms of use.

Editor: Bibek Bhandari.

(Header image: Tetra Images/People Visual)