China's shift on student death toll angers parents

Jiang said the Fuxin No. 2 school, where his daughter died, was built in 1997. A total of 127 students at the school died in the May 12 quake, including 27 of the 41 children in his daughter's classroom. "Other teachers' office buildings did not collapse," he said. "The school fence walls did not collapse, even our rural buildings did not collapse, just the [classroom] building collapsed."

Local officials have tried to quell protests from parents who have demanded an investigation of school construction. Police have been called in to silence rallies and some parents of dead or missing children say they have been intimidated or even bribed to remain silent.

A local official at the heart of the quake zone killed himself this week, the second such suicide in two months, state news media said.

On Friday, Wei estimated that 1,300 schools had been rebuilt or were under construction. He said 200,000 homes had been rebuilt and work was underway to repair 685,000. Still, 1.94 million homes need to be rebuilt or repaired, he said.

Jiang is among those waiting for home repairs.

"The local government did not meet its commitments to us," he said. "We still have to borrow money from friends and relatives; we have to live our lives. Our [home] is not suitable to live, there are splits, winter is coming. It's very cold."

Along with the chill of winter, Jiang shivers over the loss of his fifth-grader. "Watching others' children bounce lively -- they are lovely like flowers -- it's painful," Jiang said.

"My wife suffers much more."

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john.glionna@latimes.com