School violence: Schools are afraid, parents indulge?

Murder without cause

On October 27, Thong Thu Commune Police (Que Phong) were still consolidating their files and handling the female students who participated in beating up their friend and then filming and posting the clip on Facebook. Meanwhile, on the victim’s side, even though 5 days have passed, her cheeks are still bruised from being slapped and kicked many times by her friend. The corners of her eyes are still red and swollen…

The initial cause of the incident is believed to have stemmed from a very minor conflict at a birthday party. Specifically, at a 7th grade female student's birthday party, because it was too crowded, the victim accidentally sat on another student. From then on, the two began to quarrel. After the party, the victim was dragged to the nearby Nam Piet bridge by 3 female students from grades 7 and 9 and brutally beaten.

Police work with a female student in a fight at Anh Son 3 High School. Photo: CACC

When the police started investigating, they discovered that the victim had not only been beaten once. The following night, the group of female students continued to go to the victim’s house, dragged her to the bridge, beat her again, and then filmed the clip to post on social media. This clip shows the victim kneeling in the middle of the street, being slapped and kicked in the head and face many times…

Also on the same day, another nearly 6-minute clip appeared on Facebook, recording a group of female students beating another student. All the female students who participated in the beating of the student and the victim were students of Thong Thu Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. In this clip, a female student sat hunched over, while the remaining female students took turns cursing and slapping her repeatedly in the face. Principal Hoang Van Thanh said the incident happened in the school dormitory. The victim was a 7th grade female student who took the shirt of a student in the dormitory to wear and was beaten by the group...

These are two of a series of student fights discovered in Nghe An since the beginning of 2022. According to research, most student fights stem from very small conflicts or even no conflicts, but still cause murder for no reason. That is the case of Vu Ba Gia in Tay Son commune (Ky Son). Gia is the defendant who was recently sentenced by the People's Court of Nghe An province to 6 years in prison for "Murder", because he was only 14 years old when he committed the crime.

Before getting into trouble with the law, Gia was a student at Tay Son Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. On the evening of March 21, Gia was invited by his friend Mua Chu Di to the school's dormitory to beat Lau Ba T. (a student at Ky Son Continuing Education Center). Although he had no previous conflicts with T., Gia still took a knife and led the way. When they arrived at the school's dormitory, after Di pointed at T. and said "this guy, let's beat him up", Gia rushed over and slapped him many times. Seeing the victim run away, Gia chased after him and slashed him many times on the head, causing him to collapse. The victim was taken to the emergency room but died 5 days later.

Or the case of female students fighting in the classroom that happened at Anh Son 3 High School in mid-September. Ms. Nguyen Nu Ngoc Ha - homeroom teacher of class 10C6 said that the victim in the clip was BTYV (15 years old, Tho Son commune), and the female student who beat her friend was LTT (15 years old, Cam Son commune). These two students sat at the same table, had never known each other before. Since enrolling in the same class, there had been no conflict. Even after being beaten, the victim did not know the reason.

After the police got involved, it became clear that the cause originated from a conflict between female student V. and another classmate named KL since middle school. When she went to high school and went to another commune to study, KL told a group of new friends about the conflict with V. In this group of friends, there was LTT. "Therefore, during recess on the morning of September 17, T. asked V. to go to the 3rd floor with the purpose of apologizing to KL who was studying there. However, because T. did not clearly state the purpose, when she reached the 2nd floor, V. refused to go up and went back to class. Therefore, T. followed her back to class and slapped her repeatedly," said Ms. Ha. The incident was recorded by another female student, and later appeared on Facebook, causing public outrage.

The face of an 8th grade female student in Con Cuong district after a recent fight. Photo: TH

Students are too spoiled?

Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An province said that recently the unit has issued a series of documents, plans as well as integrated many programs with efforts to limit school violence. These include the Plan to implement regulations on safe, healthy, friendly educational environment, preventing and combating school violence in educational institutions in Nghe An province. The program of coordination to build a safe, healthy, friendly educational environment to prevent and combat school violence between the Department of Education and Training and the Women's Union, Veterans Association, Education Promotion Association, Former Teachers' Association, and the Association of Educational Psychology of Nghe An province. Document on implementing the program of coordination to build a safe, healthy, friendly educational environment, preventing and combating school violence, period 2020 - 2025 (sent to the People's Committee at district level and relevant departments, branches and associations)...

However, it seems that those documents and plans have not yet brought positive signals. A secondary school principal said that the recent incidents of students fighting are just the tip of the iceberg, because there are many similar incidents that are not widely known.

“Once, when I accidentally checked the phones of some students in the school, I was really shocked to discover a series of clips recording scenes of them fighting. That proves that this situation happens a lot, except that the clips are not leaked or posted on social networks. Not to mention, there are many fights but no one records the clips. The students who are beaten do not tell their parents, do not report to the school, so no one knows,” said the principal, who asked to remain anonymous. In addition, there are many cases of students fighting, but the school, because it is afraid of affecting their achievements, keeps silent, does not report or handle it.

Meanwhile, a teacher with nearly 30 years of experience teaching middle school said that, although he has taught many generations of students, he has never witnessed such alarming violence as today. Especially with students in grades 7 to 9, this is the age when students are most psychologically unstable. “Students are mischievous, every generation fights. But today is very different from the past because of the level of brutality. In the past, when students fought, they mostly just stopped at fists. But now they are ready to destroy each other, seeing each other as enemies. Not to mention, today students are ready to fight each other without any reason or for very ridiculous reasons,” said this teacher.

According to this teacher, the current alarming situation of student violence is partly due to the excessive indulgence of parents. Many parents, because of financial concerns, push the responsibility of education onto the school. However, if teachers only need to impose a little heavy punishment, parents will start to react strongly.

Parents posted online to accuse teachers of beating students. Screenshot

“The saddest thing for teachers is that parents often side with their children and do not cooperate, and the school does not allow them to be severely punished,” the old teacher said, referring to a recent incident at Quan Hanh Secondary School (Nghi Loc). Specifically, a female student, although only in 7th grade, is known as the “big sister” in the school. This female student lives with her grandparents because her parents are working abroad. Recently, this female student blocked the road and beat up a classmate for no reason, so the victim’s parents reported it to the school. Upon receiving the information, the school’s Youth Union leader called the female students to teach them a lesson. However, this female student had a rude attitude, especially in the text messages with her friends, she challenged “the school cannot do anything”.

The Team Leader then used a small plastic handle to hit the female student's hand, causing a small bruise. However, after returning home, a relative took a picture of the bruise and sent it to the student's mother. The parent immediately posted it on social media to denounce the school. Therefore, the school and the teacher had to go to the student's house to apologize.

A male teacher in Yen Thanh was punched and had his nose broken by a parent for punishing a student. Photo courtesy

Or like the case that happened at Tan Thanh Secondary School (Yen Thanh) a few years ago. A physical education teacher saw a 9th grade male student violating discipline by burning paper in the classroom, slapped the student and then invited the student's parents to come to talk. However, when the parents came, instead of admitting their mistake, they punched the teacher, breaking his nose and requiring hospitalization.

According to data recently released by the Ministry of Education and Training, in a school year, nearly 1,600 student fights occurred nationwide, or about 5 cases per day. For every 5,200 students, there was one fight; for every 9 schools, there was 1 student fight. More worryingly, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, each month, more than 1,000 young people committed crimes. Previously, the highest number of murderers were those aged 30 to under 45. Now, criminals are getting younger, mostly aged 18 to under 30, accounting for 41% of murders.