Taking school bullies by the horns

Li Xianyi, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the nation's top political advisory body, has proposed strengthening efforts to stop bullying on campus.

Quoting the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Li said 3,407 suspects had been arrested in 2018 for campus bullying. There have been fewer reported cases since, but many cases go unreported as those being bullied are often too scared to complain.

School bullying must be rooted out because the scars it leaves on young minds sometimes haunt them all their lives.

Worse, it gives birth to new bullies. There are many instances of people who have been bullied turning into bullies themselves and harassing those younger than them.

Li stresses that joint efforts are needed. In fact, the legislature can do a lot more by strengthening the law against campus bullying. The law could specify the penalty to be imposed on a bully, or on his/her custodians when the bully is too young to be punished.

Moreover, in certain cases, the bullies live outside the campus. Some gangsters "remotely control" some students, and use them to blackmail and rob their classmates of money. Such cases call for stricter legislation and harsher penalties.

The schools must do more, too. In the past, teachers have underplayed students' complaints about bullying, saying the bully was "just playing" or "just too naughty".

Taking such complaints lightly has become part of the problem. It is time schools and teachers changed their attitude and took campus bullying seriously.

Parents must teach their wards ways to avoid getting bullied. They should encourage them to speak out when they are bullied. Only through such joint efforts can campus bullying be curbed.