Hebei rolls out regulations on school incidents

North China's Hebei province has started to implement regulations made for schools to cope with safety incidents, in an effort to ensure order at school and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of people involved in incidents, the province's top educational organ said.

The regulations, including what a school should do after an incident, how much money should be paid as compensation and how related government departments should support schools' handling of incidents, were put into effect on the first day of the month, according to the Hebei Educational Department.

"Safety incidents" refers to accidents that cause harm or injuries to students or others, happening at school or outside during events organized by the school, a document issued by the department read.

Bullying, property damage, stalking, insulting students and teachers and bringing harmful instruments to school all fall under this category.

When met with accidents, the school should immediately rescue injured people. If one or more people were killed by the accident and three or more were badly injured, the Party chief of the school or the president should be in charge of handing matters related to the accident, it said.

The document encourages schools to establish legal service centers for protecting student rights and interests, provide guidance for students' parents to buy them insurance and set up funds for compensation.

But schools cannot patch up a quarrel or reconcile parties concerned only by providing money, which may make the compensation will be huge if enough complaints are made, or small if there's not much complaint, the document read.

The regulations in Hebei follow a national-level guidance released in June by the Ministry of Education and other related ministries for the protection of students, teachers and other workers at schools.