The Law on the Protection of Minors defines student bullying for the first time, and experts explain how to protect the "young you"
In recent years, tragedies caused by school bullying have occurred frequently, and how to better protect minors has become the focus of social attention.
On October 17, the amendment to the Law on the Protection of Minors was passed by a vote of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and will come into force on June 1, 2021.
The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors defines student bullying for the first time.
Relevant experts pointed out that the new law incorporates mental damage into the scope of bullying, and the definition of the concept is more precise. At the same time, it clearly stipulates that schools must have prevention, control and disposal mechanisms. However, how to establish a school's work system for preventing and controlling bullying needs to be further improved by the education administration department. Clarify and issue supporting regulations.
Define student bullying for the first time, focusing on mental damage
"Student bullying refers to behaviors that occur among students when one party deliberately or maliciously uses physical, language, and online methods to bully or insult, causing the other party's personal injury, property loss, or mental damage." Newly revised minors The Protection Act defines student bullying for the first time.
Yuan Ningning, associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law and Executive Deputy Director of the Juvenile Affairs Governance and Legal Research Base, said, “The definition of student bullying in the new law is basically consistent with the definition of campus bullying in the regulatory documents issued by the Ministry of Education. ."
The reporter learned that as early as 2016, nine departments including the Ministry of Education issued the "Guiding Opinions on Prevention and Treatment of Bullying and Violence among Primary and Secondary School Students", emphasizing the need to strengthen education prevention, legal punishment, and comprehensive management to effectively prevent the occurrence of student bullying and violence.
In the following year, 11 departments including the Ministry of Education jointly issued the "Strengthening the Comprehensive Management Plan for Primary and Secondary School Student Bullying", clarifying that schools should focus on the handling of student bullying incidents.
Yuan Ningning said that in the past, the Ministry of Education issued a document to deal with school bullying incidents, which was only instructive and not mandatory. Unlike the normative documents, schools must implement them after they were raised to laws.
He said that the new law clearly defines the scope of student bullying, referring to behaviors that occur between students; it is not limited to violence, but also includes language abuse or even vilification on the Internet.
In previous practice, many people believed that bullying was mainly focused on the physical aspect. The current definition is relatively comprehensive and includes three aspects: physical bullying, language bullying and cyber bullying.
In addition, it is clear that bullying will have certain serious consequences, causing physical, property, or mental damage to the other party.
Cheng Fangping, a professor at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, said that language violence can cause mental harm to minors as much as physical harm, and the impact of mental bullying should not be ignored.
Yuan Ningning also believes that by including mental damage in the scope of bullying, the definition of the concept is more precise.
The power of preliminary determination is handed over to the school, and parents supervise to avoid "harmony"
However, mental damage is often intangible. How should it be defined in reality?
This is also a concern for parents.
Beijing parent Ms. Liu said that her son is 8 years old this year and is in the second grade of elementary school. He has a lively personality. Because she is worried that her child will be bullied by classmates during school, she often observes carefully and asks about the child’s situation. In addition, she has repeatedly taught her Ask the parents for help.
Ms. Liu believes that physical injuries are easy to find, but mental or psychological injuries are hidden.
She also worries that when dealing with student bullying incidents, the school has a mentality of "family scandals should not be publicized", and that major issues are reduced to small and trivial matters, and they cannot effectively curb bullying.
"Playing and playing, pranks, and other behaviors are really easy to confuse with bullying." Yuan Ningning said that behind the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors, there is also a point of view: it is necessary to strictly distinguish between student bullying and playful and slapstick behaviors, and Give the school the right to initially determine bullying behavior.
In response to possible “cleaning mud” behaviors in schools, Yuan Ningning said that the new law clarifies that schools should stop bullying behaviors of students immediately, and notify parents or other guardians of bullying and bullying underage students to participate in the identification and handling of bullying behaviors. .
Therefore, from the school level, even if it does not constitute an illegal crime, the school should not let it go. Instead, it should strengthen the discipline according to the nature and degree of the bullying.
"The school used to say'yes' and'yes' and'no' and'no'. Now that both parents participate in the determination, it will play a certain role in supervision." Yuan Ningning said.
Cheng Fangping, a professor at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, also believes that when conflicts and violent behaviors occurred between students, schools would often “turn one eye and close one eye” and shift the responsibility to the parents. The new law stipulates that the school must take care of it. Will reduce the occurrence of serious injuries.
Not only interfere with children, but also guide parents
The reporter learned that in order to prevent bullying from happening, some schools in Beijing have taken preventive measures.
Su Yongming, assistant to the principal of the Xicheng Experimental School of the Second Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University, said that although the school does not have extreme conditions, it will prevent and intervene early to prevent possible bullying, thus playing a precautionary role.
For example, the school will use psychology classes to provide relevant training and guidance to students, and help students learn to live together through group activities.
As for common problems that may cause conflicts among students, such as "playing a ball and grabbing a field", the school has also formulated relevant regulations for management.
"Article 39" stipulates that: provide timely psychological counseling, education and guidance to relevant minor students; provide necessary family education and guidance to the parents or other guardians of relevant minor students.
Yuan Ningning believes that whether bullying can be effectively resolved is to help both parties restore the proper order of study and life. In the "Article 39", this aspect is emphasized.
Yuan Ningning said that children bullying others may often be caused by problems with family discipline. Therefore, it is necessary to intervene not only with children, but also with guardians.
"The school is working hard and requires the cooperation of parents." Su Yongming also believes that the school's guidance to parents is very important, and parents need to look at problems objectively from the perspective of student growth.
He suggested that the school can also improve the corresponding emergency system and conduct drills, and in the event of an emergency, let teachers and students know how to deal with it.
In addition, the society should also do more positive guidance, use the examples of students to get along with each other and grow together to bring students a good emotional and emotional experience.
Supporting regulations need to be issued to standardize the anti-bullying work system
Regarding the issue of how "Article 39" of the new law is implemented, Yuan Ningning believes that the law now clearly stipulates that schools must have a working system to prevent and control bullying, but what this working system is still needs to be further clarified by the education administration department on how to establish a system. , Standardized student bullying prevention control system, and promulgated supporting regulations.
In addition, the public security department should immediately intervene and participate in the handling of serious bullying reported by the school. Parents or guardians of both parties should actively participate in the identification and handling activities organized by the school. This is both a right and an obligation.
"From the school level, the core of bullying handling is to resolve conflicts." Yuan Ningning explained that this includes two aspects, one is how to help the bullied children return to normal life and study.
For children who are bullying, if it does not constitute a crime, how to strengthen their discipline is left to the school's follow-up work.
Cheng Fangping pointed out that the physical and verbal violence committed by teachers to students is not only among students, but also schools should pay attention to.
He believes that legislators, schools, and other parties should conduct psychological research on the perpetrators of bullying, and stopping or reducing the occurrence of bullying is a comprehensive management process. The formulation, implementation and supervision of laws, especially the educators, should have a complete set of Only measures and methods of comprehensive management can fundamentally solve the problem of bullying.
"The issue of student bullying involves both the protection of minors and the prevention of juvenile delinquency." Yuan Ningning added that in the process of implementing "Article 39", another law that is being revised-the prevention of minors The crime law may also make clearer regulations on the handling of student bullying from the perspective of crime prevention.
Beijing News reporter Su Ji proofreads Xue Jingning