Schools should report bullies to authorities, legislator says

While establishing a work system to prevent bullying, schools should also promptly report severe bullying to public security and educational authorities and cooperate with the departments to handle the problem, a senior legislator said on Friday.

Citing the revised Minor Protection Law and the Law on Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency in 2020, Yang Heqing, from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, called on everyone to attach greater importance to school bullying, strictly implementing the provisions, and forming joint efforts to deal with the issue.

He made the remark in response to some recent cases that have sparked public widespread attention on juvenile offenses as well as the underlying problems behind them, such as school bullying.

Yang, also the spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, told a news conference that the laws have given clear requirements to schools, families and educational administrations.

For instance, the laws stipulate that parents and other guardians of children should not be allowed to indulge or incite minors to bully others, ordering educational administrations to work with other authorities to set up a bullying prevention and control system, he said.

Schools are responsible for identifying whether a student's behavior is bullying in line with the laws, with stronger security inspection as well as psychological aid, education and guidance for children if it discovers their improper acts, he added.

"Schools need to enhance the education and management to students who bully other classmates," he said. "If the bullying behavior is serious, schools should report to public security and educational departments in a timely manner and then work with them to deal with the problem."

"If a student's bullying violates public security regulations, or constitutes a criminal act, they will be sent to a specialized school for special education, or held administrative or criminally liable in accordance with the laws," he added.

Under the laws, school bullying refers to intentional or malicious actions between students, where one side deliberately uses physical, verbal, or online means to oppress or insult another, resulting in the victim's physical harm, property damage or mental damage.