School bullies will lose chances for better education

Junior middle school students who have a record of school bullying will be deprived of recommendation opportunities for excellent senior middle schools, a local education authority said recently.

Candidates who have engaged in negative behaviors such as cheating during exams or school bullying should not be recommended as students with admission advantages during the enrollment process of senior middle schools, according to a regulation released by the Chengdu Education Bureau in Sichuan province.

The regulation aims to ensure that comprehensive quality evaluation plays a significant role in high school enrollment, breaking away from a score-oriented approach, it said. The regulation will help foster students' moral integrity, and promote their comprehensive development and healthy growth.

The regulation was issued amid heated discussions about several recent school bullying incidents involving teenagers.

A video went viral on social media showing three male students in Linyi, Shandong province, stuffing garbage into another boy's mouth and physically assaulting him by punching and kicking, while hitting him with tree branches.

During the 7-minute video, the boy was crying in pain as the other students insulted him.

Local police said on Monday that the assailants had been apprehended and the boy was not badly hurt.

Another video showed that in Jieyang, Guangdong province, a girl was surrounded and attacked by a group of male students of the same age, who used ropes to whip and kick her in a corner.

Local police announced on Monday that the case has been resolved.

In a recent case of three boys who allegedly killed a middle school student in Handan, Hebei province, the victim's father said his son had suffered from school bullying for a long time.

There have been increasingly dangerous trends emerging in school bullying, including younger perpetrators engaging in bullying behavior, China Central Television commented on Wednesday.

Moreover, the severity of such behavior has challenged social norms, given that acts such as forcing classmates to eat feces or coercing others to lick genitals are being perpetrated by elementary and middle school students, some of whom are under 10 years old, the commentary said.

Cases of juvenile delinquency closely associated with school bullying are also rising.

"We must prioritize the perspective of the victims and impose strong punishments on bullies. It is especially necessary to analyze and deal with emblematic cases properly to set examples and deter future occurrences, gradually reversing the negative trends," it said.

To effectively curb incidents of school bullying, schools must play a pivotal role and act as the first line of defense. Judicial authorities should employ decisive measures on minors suspected of committing crimes, imposing necessary penalties and charging appropriate compensation, it added.