Education authorities in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, said on Thursday that they have launched an investigation of a teacher at the center of a controversy regarding a student's death.

Miao Kexin, 10, a fifth-grader at Hebin Elementary School in Changzhou's Jintan district , jumped to her death shortly after finishing classes taught by Yuan.

In a circular released on Thursday, the district education bureau said they are looking into allegations as to whether the teacher, surnamed Yuan, had taken bribes, run private classes or physically abused students.

Miao's parents claimed that Yuan ran private writing classes for profit, though it is forbidden by local authorities, and that she had long verbally abused students, including Miao, because she would not attend the private classes.

The district government said last week that they had interviewed 45 students and three teachers at the school and found that Yuan had not verbally or physically abused the child in class that day. They also ruled out the possibility of murder after examining surveillance videos and the death scene.

But according to a report by Beijing News on Tuesday, Yuan admitted in a written explanation that she slapped Miao's face once last October after she found the girl missed some homework and didn't perform well academically.