Adults have responsibility for kids' behavior

A number of girls beat and kick a fellow female student who kneels down on the ground in Yongxin county, Jiangxi province. [Photo/ Weibo]

A BEIJING MOTHER'S ONLINE POST describing how her 10-year-old son was bullied at Zhongguancun No 2 Primary School, a leading school in Haidian district, provoked much online debate. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Monday:

Bullying is not uncommon among Chinese teenagers, many of whom are spoiled and often exempt from rules-based education at home.

In this case, the school deemed the incident "a joke that went too far" and the parents of the juvenile bully said he was "just being naughty", according to the mother of the bullied. However, the victim has since been suffering from acute anxiety as a result of the bullying.

It is worth noting that all the adults involved－the parents of the "naughty" boy and the bullied boy, even the teachers－did not bother to ask the kids what really happened and what they think of it. They rushed to draw their own conclusions and point fingers against each other in shared pursuit of shirking their own responsibilities.

It is particularly irresponsible of the school to try and adopt an ostrich policy by making light of the bullying incident and referring to it as a "joke". And its vaguely worded statement on Saturday, which promised to "make further efforts to achieve an outcome satisfactory to all parties", was hardly helpful.

The ongoing conflict came just a month after the Ministry of Education, along with the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security and other ministries disclosed a guideline on dealing with juvenile violence and school bullying. The school is obliged to teach all students about the boundaries of their interaction with other students and the importance of saying no to violence, not hide its head in the sand when a student is bullied.