Principal, teacher punished in school bullying

The principal and another teacher at a primary school in Henan province have been ordered to reflect on their inattentiveness after a 7-year-old girl was bullied by three classmates who stuffed pieces of paper into her eyes, local education authorities said on Tuesday.

The girl, a second-grade student at Dajian Primary School in Yuzhou city, was held down by two boys while another boy stuffed small pieces of paper into the girl's eyes on Sept 28, the Yuzhou bureau of education and sports said in a statement.

The teacher, surnamed Li, and the girl's parents took the girl to two local hospitals for eye exams and found "no apparent abnormality". The parents of one of the boys involved covered the hospital fees, the statement said.

However, the girl's parents noticed many small pieces of paper continued to come out of her eyes between Sept 30 and Oct 10. Her parents took her to a hospital in Yuzhou on Oct 11 and later to a hospital in Beijing on Oct 25, it said.

Doctors in Beijing did not find anymore pieces of paper in the girl's eyes, and she was discharged. The school paid those hospital fees.

The parents of the girl and the boys as well as the school reached a compensation agreement on Tuesday after the girl's eyes showed no signs of abnormality, the statement said.

The school, teachers and the boys' parents have apologized to the girl's parents. The boys were scolded but will not face other punishment, it added.

The girl's mother told Henan Television that dozens of pieces of paper have been removed by doctors since the incident and the girl's eyesight has significantly worsened.

The principal, surnamed Wang, was quoted by Henan TV as saying there was no teacher present when the incident occurred, and it was not clear how many pieces of paper were stuffed into the girl's eyes.

"The boys are only 7 or 8 years old," the principal said. "They had no bad intentions. It was just little kids fooling around."

There have been frequent media reports about school bullying in recent years. In 2015, a boy in a middle school in Shandong province jumped from the fourth floor of a school building in a suicide attempt because he "just could not tolerate a life of being bullied every day any longer," according to China Central Television. The teenager severely injured his back and legs.

The Education Supervision Committee of the State Council launched an anti-bullying campaign aimed at middle and primary schools last year.

According to a campaign circular, schools should set up anti-bullying commissions and clarify the specific tasks of teachers and officials, as well as specific procedures for early warning, handling and intervention.

They should also clarify specific punishments for various degrees of bullying, the circular said.