Legislation needed to tackle scourge of bullying

The police officer is giving lessons to high school students around school violence topic in Shenyang,Liaoning province,on May 27,2016.[Photo/IC]

The Guangdong people's congress deputies have rightly suggested preemptive measures against juvenile bullies in the wake of increasing school violence, which is a supervisory gray area because of the absence of relevant laws. China's laws on juvenile protection and combating domestic violence are basically about protecting children from being bullied or abused by adults, not by their peers.

Therefore, instead of imposing hefty penalties on young bullies, legislative efforts must be made to end bullying in schools. With relevant laws in place, defining school bullying and holding the bullies accountable would be much easier. So would be judicial intervention, and clarifying the responsibilities of schools and the legal guardians of the abusive students. In many cases, school bullying is confined to students of the same school, which cannot be dealt with through civil conduct rules. That means a sophisticated set of policy tools, from punishing and educating school bullies to assisting the bullied, are also needed.

A ministerial-level guideline on preventing juvenile violence issued in November last year said teenagers with a propensity to use violence and a longtime record of bullying their peers should be transferred to "special" schools if needed. Legal teeth must be added to such proposals, and psychological aid provided for the victims.

But to end school violence, local judicial authorities also have to play their part better by inspiring national legislation on the issue.