Preventing school-age crime: Promoting community responsibility

(Baonghean) - Recently, there have been many dangerous crimes with inhumane acts. More worryingly, the perpetrators in serious crimes are students who are still in school. To effectively prevent crime and school violence, the important factor is to raise the responsibility of the community...

Recently, in the province, there have been many serious cases in which the criminals are of school age. Typical examples include: the murder case in Hung Nguyen district, the defendant is an 11th grade student, because of his addiction to watching "porn" movies, he could not control his desires, leading to inhumane actions; there was a murder case in Thanh Chuong district in which both the victim and the perpetrator were junior high school students... The above are just some typical cases related to school crimes that have been investigated and handled by the authorities in the past. However, there are also cases in which the criminals are too young to be criminally or administratively prosecuted, and can only be resolved within the school or family...

According to the report of the Department of Education and Training, in the first 6 months of 2014, there were 1,541 students who violated the law, of which 1,267 students violated traffic safety, 14 students stole property, 7 students intentionally caused injury, 20 students disturbed public order... Of these, 19 cases were prosecuted criminally, 658 cases were administratively prosecuted. Regarding the handling measures of the schools, 4 students were forced to leave school, 21 students were suspended from school, 404 students were reprimanded, 167 students were warned, 176 students had their conduct reduced. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the highest form of discipline for students who violate the law is 1 year of suspension from school. However, according to the majority of teachers, expelling students is only the last resort. Not all students know how to repent. If they do not go to school and lack parental supervision, they will easily become corrupted and fall deeper into crime.

Therefore, to prevent and combat school crimes, the most important measure is to help students become aware of their actions. Recently, many schools have coordinated with the police to increase legal education for students, while simultaneously implementing synchronous measures to ensure school security. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long - Principal of Do Luong II High School, said: "Determining school security is very important, every year, at the beginning of the school year, the school coordinates with the district police to organize legal propaganda sessions for students. Thereby, helping students to be aware of criminal acts, corresponding penalties... In addition, the school's mass organizations such as the Trade Union, Youth Union, homeroom teachers, and class committees regularly organize propaganda for students, strengthen solidarity, strictly comply with school regulations, and legal regulations through extracurricular activities, helping students to be aware of the dangers and harms of social evils, violent games, and obscene websites... From there, they know how to prevent them. At the same time, grasp the developments in students' thoughts, behaviors, gestures, and words, promptly detect conflicts that occur between them to have appropriate handling measures, and immediately prevent possible conflicts."

Vinh City High School students signed a commitment not to violate traffic safety and social evils.

However, according to Mr. Long, preventing and combating school crimes does not only depend on the efforts of the schools themselves but also requires the participation of families and society. In fact, many families and localities still "outsource" this task to the school. At Le Viet Thuat High School (Vinh City), to partially limit and control school violence, the school has hired a team of bodyguards to be present on campus to promptly detect and prevent fights between students. However, according to Mr. Tran Duy Thanh - Vice Principal of the school, this measure has not really been effective. “In reality, most school violence cases occur outside the school grounds. At most, students spend no more than 8 hours a day at school, and teachers, especially homeroom teachers, have little contact with and control over students. However, whenever an incident occurs, the first people to be “called” are always the homeroom teachers and the school board. Meanwhile, the school’s highest authority is to suspend students for a year. And when handing over students to local authorities for management, the school is not allowed to report on the results of the management.”

According to Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Sy Son - Deputy Head of Vinh City Police, at school age, due to incomplete awareness, it is easy for conflicts to arise and for them to be easily provoked, leading to crime. In addition, the integrated economy accompanied by unhealthy cultural products, along with a pragmatic concept of life and lifestyle, has regularly impacted and influenced the thinking of a large number of students. The explosion of information systems, the appearance of too many internet business services, along with violent video games and movies, pirated discs with unhealthy content, toxic toys that are distributed and easily exploited, bought and sold on websites and markets... are the causes of negative impacts and lead to illegal acts of a number of students. Therefore, the education of students must be of interest to the whole family, school and society. In particular, families and schools must regularly maintain close contact to exchange information, manage time and grasp students' thoughts, from which they can educate their children to study hard, work well and comply with discipline and laws... Only then can they contribute to the fight against crimes committed by students with local authorities and the police, contributing to protecting school order and discipline, ensuring a peaceful, clean and healthy educational environment, and preventing the increasing trend of school crimes.

Minh Quan