LANZHOU - A schoolboy once arrested for spreading rumors online was expelled from school in northwest China's Gansu Province on Monday, though the government has launched an ensuing investigation.

The teenager's father, Yang Niuhu, told Xinhua that officials from Yusheng Middle School of Tianshui City spoke to him a week ago to explain that they "really can't accept him due to various pressures."

But all citizens have the right and responsibility to receive compulsory education in China, according to the provincial education department, which has instructed the city's education bureau to examine the case.

The 16-year-old middle school student surnamed Yang was transferred to his current school on November 1, around a month after he was released by police thanks to the withdrawal of his criminal case.

He was given a seven-day administrative detention instead, which Gansu Provincial Security Department and Tianshui Municipal Public Security Bureau thought was in accordance with the Criminal Law's "education first, supplemented by punishment" principle in cases involving minors.

Later, Yang filed an administrative review and applied for criminal compensation on the grounds that he was coerced and tortured during his detention.

Ma Zhengrong, principle of Yang's original school in the city's Zhangjiachuan County, said the school gate is still open to him if Yang wishes to come back.

Yang questioned the local police's handling of an accidental death on his microblog and called for a "protest march" in September. Public security authorities confirmed that the posts, which were shared more than 500 times, were ungrounded and misleading.

According to a judicial interpretation issued by China's top court and procuratorate days before Yang's case on September 9, people will face defamation charges if the online rumors they create are viewed by at least 5,000 Internet users or retweeted 500 or more times.