‍A middle school and the corresponding local education bureau in northwest China’s Xi’an city have hit headlines and drawn public ire after a post revealing education officials’ attempts to “retaliate” against two students went viral.

Hazardous smog has shrouded large parts of northern China over the past week, prompting governments to issue “red alert” notices to close schools. The Middle School Attached to Northwestern Polytechnical University, however, decided to go ahead with lessons despite the toxic air pollution levels, which topped out at over 500 on Wednesday - the highest number that the air quality index can record - triggering complaints from frustrated students and parents online.

Two outspoken souls then decided to report the case to the Xi’an Municipal Commission of Education. But rather than reprimanding the school, the education bureau disclosed the informers’ mobile phone numbers to the school authorities, who tried to trace them.

Chinese netizens reacted to the story with similar venom to that expressed over the smoggy haze.

“It’s disgraceful that the educators should have threatened the children for whom they are supposed to be the role models,” a user of Chinese social media platform Weibo posted under the name @snarry.

“The adults have committed hooliganism against the naïve children, did they try to teach the youngsters a lesson about the jungle rules?” asked user @weifengqingyang.

School closures are required in areas under smog-induced red alerts, which are issued by local governments when the air quality index is forecast to exceed 300 consecutively for three days, so as to keep the children indoors for health concerns, according to a guideline issued by the central government in 2015.

Many schools, as exemplified by the Middle School Attached to Northwestern Polytechnical University, are nevertheless dragging their feet over suspending class when dangerous air pollution hits.

On Friday, thepaper.cn, a leading online Chinese media outlet, reported that it had also received a complaint about the Xi’an-based middle school defying the government’s repeated notices to suspend classes in schools. Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education later insisted that students had attended voluntary Q&A sessions.

And last month, a headmaster of a middle school in central China’s Linzhou city was suspended after photos of students taking an exam in a smog-clouded outdoor playground were circulated online.