Parents' onus to curb bullying

The principal and deputy principal of a middle school in Yichuan county, Central China's Henan province, have been removed from their posts because of a bullying incident on campus, the local education authorities said on Tuesday.

This is a rare occasion when the leaders of a school have been held accountable for campus violence - in this instance, two girls took turns to slap another girl in the face - and thus it is being interpreted as the authorities' intensifying efforts to clamp down on it.

The frequent reports of bullying in schools in recent years have sparked widespread concerns about the safety of children and discontent at the ineffective efforts by the schools to curb such acts.

However, the dismissal of school administrators does not mean campus bullying will be eradicated. More should be done to educate students on how to behave themselves, and in this, families and the rest of society have important roles to play in inculcating minors with a code of acceptable behavior.

Schools are believed by some to be chiefly responsible for preventing acts of bullying on their campuses. However, school authorities have few means to punish bullies under the current education management system.

A guideline jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Education and other State departments at the end of last year, which is aimed at preventing bullying acts among primary and middle school students, stipulates that students repeatedly bullying others can be transferred to a special school, but so far no specific measures have been formulated to enable this.

To a large extent, the root cause of bullying on campus can be traced to family education. As the guardians of minors, parents have the main responsibility for their children's education and manner of behavior.

While censuring those youngsters involved in bullying, we should also think about whether parents can do more to stop this.