China aims to eradicate school violence

China’s prosecutors nationwide need to unite with all forces to eradicate school bullying, especially school violence, the country’s procurator-general said Saturday.

“School bullying, especially school violence, has severely hindered Chinese students’ growth and disturbed the order of campuses,” said Procurator-general Cao Jianming.

Cai said that adults suspected of instigating, organizing, or coercing minors to committing crimes should be heavily punished.

Chinese prosecuting departments in 2016 approved the arrest of 1,180 people involved in school bullying and violence, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in March.

Prosecutors nationwide filed charges against 678 adults last year suspected of having instigated, organized, or coerced minors into committing crimes.

There have been frequent media reports on school bullying in recent years.

A Beijing mother’s article in December 2016, describing her 10-year-old son being bullied at school, went viral. After having a toilet waste-paper basket thrown on his head and being mocked by other classmates, the fourth-grade boy was diagnosed with acute stress disorder, a mental illness characterized by severe anxiety.

In April 2016, a video went viral showing a schoolgirl being slapped more than 30 times by a group of older girls. Police detained a number of the perpetrators.