HONG KONG: Six girls found guilty of the brutal harassment of a classmate have been sentenced in Tsuen Wan Magistrates Court. One was ordered to spend nine months in juvenile detention. Five others were given probationary terms of between 18 and 24 months.

The girl who was the victim in the case was beaten up over a period of several hours, stripped of her clothing in a shopping mall washroom, then recorded on video, burnt with cigarettes, held against her will for several hours and threatened that she should not tell anyone about the incident.

Judge Anthony Yuen, questioned whether Hong Kong's education system and parents have paid sufficient attention to teaching children moral values.

The six on trial were found guilty of false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In all, nine girls were involved in the attack.

The victim earlier testified that she was attacked after telling a teacher that one of the girls may have been involved in stealing a mobile phone at the school.

Two of the nine girls charged in the attacks were sentenced earlier to 18 months probation, and charges against another girl were dropped.

Under terms of probation the girls are not allowed to go out at night without permission from their parents or their probation officer.

Magistrate Yuen said he could not understand why the girls, born and educated in Hong Kong, would turn to uncivilized behavior to bully another girl close to them in age

He questioned whether the problem is caused by insufficient parental guidance, or whether the schools have stressed academic and examination results heavily while not paying attention to moral education.

Magistrate Yuen urged parents to set an example for their children. Parents should not resort to violence, he said.

He said that the girls will learn from the experience and be more respectful of others in the future.

The Education Bureau said school bullying will not be tolerated.

The bureau said they have deployed more counseling staff to primary schools, and will continue the "one school, one social worker" policy at secondary schools.

The bureau has also commissioned tertiary education institutions to provide training course to teachers.

Mak Tak-cheung, the vice president of the Hong Kong Association for School Discipline and Counselling Teachers, admitted that schools overall have not put enough stress on moral education.

Mak said parental influence is of utmost importance to teenagers' behaviors. "From my experience, badly-behaved students usually come from troubled families. Those parents often have problems teaching their children or do not spend much time with their kids," he said.

He added that some students may resort to force partly because they are affected by violent content in movies, television programs and computer games.

China Daily

(HK Edition 09/11/2009 page1)