Text | Gui Fangfang Xie Rui
Keeping children away from student bullying and campus sexual assault, and enjoying fuller rights to equality, personality rights, and privacy, need strong protection from the law.
Student bullying and sexual assault on campus are major problems that harm the legitimate rights and interests of students. Since September 1 this year, the "Provisions on the Protection of Schools for Minors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions") promulgated by the Ministry of Education has been formally implemented, especially for major issues of social concern such as student bullying and campus sexual assault, clarifying how the mandatory reporting system and the practice prohibition system can be implemented and linked at the school level, setting up a multi-party governance mechanism for student bullying, and clarifying the rights and responsibilities of government departments, schools and teaching staff.
What are the specific novelties of the Provisions, and how will children be protected? We use the following real-world cases to dissect the practical significance of these new initiatives.
Case 1: In a public toilet, a female student was slapped 20 times
In August, a video of a juvenile bullying that sparked outrage circulated online. The video shows a girl being slapped by two girls in a public toilet, one of whom was dressed in red and slapped 20 times in a row.
On August 16, the public security organs issued a notice saying that after police investigation, the content of the video of minors bullying on the Internet was true. The infringer Wang XX (female, 14 years old) and the victim Zhu XX (female, 14 years old) once had an argument on qq. On the day of the incident, the two met in a restaurant in the city, and wang xxx and 10 other people and Zhu xxx came to a nearby public toilet, and then there was a bullying incident.
In recent years, similar cases of student bullying have been common. According to the China Education Tracking Survey (CEPS) released by the China Survey and Data Center of Chinese University, 19.1% of junior high school students have experienced physical violence on campus, and the incidence of verbal bullying is as high as 49.6%.
In the face of such a high incidence of student bullying cases, the Provisions set up a series of detailed and specific protection systems in the "special protection":
First of all, student bullying cases are hidden, and only a few cases have attracted the attention of schools and society because of serious consequences or video outflows. In view of this situation, the Provisions require faculty and staff to take an active role in understanding and discovering possible incidents of student bullying.
The Provisions require that faculty and staff should pay attention to students who may be in a weak or special position due to physical condition, family background or academic performance, etc., and if they find that they are isolated or excluded, they should intervene in a timely manner. If it is found that the student has obvious emotional abnormalities, physical injuries, etc., they should communicate and understand the situation in a timely manner. If there may be bullying, report to the school in time.
After discovering student bullying, in addition to being investigated and dealt with by the public security organs, the school should do something. Therefore, the Provisions require that every school should set up a student bullying governance organization, and the vice principal of the rule of law, legal advisers, relevant experts, parent representatives, and student representatives should jointly participate in the prevention, identification and handling of student bullying incidents, and mobilize all parties to fully participate in student bullying governance.
After the implementation of the Provisions, once the school discovers a bullying video similar to this case, or finds that there is a bullying incident in the school, it should immediately carry out an investigation, hand it over to the student bullying governance organization to identify and dispose of, and notify the student's parents to participate. Where bullying is determined to constitute, the school shall make educational or disciplinary sanctions against the bullied students and require parents to exercise strict discipline. For such a serious violation of the administration of public security in this case, the school has the obligation to report to the public security organs and the education administrative department while handling it.
Case 2: The teacher rapes the student, and the principal hides it
Two teachers of a middle school in Hunan province used deception, inducement, coercion and other means to rape 9 underage female students of the school in several years, 8 of whom were even under the age of 14, and a 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by the two gangs with outsiders. As people's teachers, they are so rampant, does no one in the school find out what they are doing?
The Supreme People's Procuratorate notified the case in May 2021. In fact, some parents of students have repeatedly reported to the principal and vice principal of the school that the two teachers molested the students, but the two responsible persons not only did not investigate and verify after receiving the clues, but also did not report the case to the public security organs.
In addition to the criminal's bestiality, the serious dereliction of duty and insensitivity of the two responsible persons of the school involved are equally heinous. By turning a deaf ear and ignoring them, they are indulging the evil deeds of their perpetrators and missing out on opportunities to protect more students from abuse.
In response to similar school leaders' concealment and non-reporting, the Provisions contain a more detailed accountability mechanism than before, clearly stipulating that the principal is the first responsible person for the protection of the student's school. If the school shields, conceals or fails to report, threatens or obstructs the reporting of the case, obstructs the investigation, retaliates against the students, and so forth, the competent education department shall give sanctions to the principal responsible person and the directly responsible person or order the school to give sanctions. Principals who assume leadership responsibilities due to inadequate supervision and serious consequences may no longer hold the position of principal for 5 years.
In addition to holding responsible persons accountable, the Regulations also require all faculty and staff to perform their reporting duties. Where faculty and staff discover that students' rights and interests have been infringed and fall within the scope of their own work, they shall promptly handle it; where they do not fall within the scope of their own work or cannot handle it, they shall promptly report it to the class teacher or the responsible person of the school; when necessary, they may directly report to the competent department of education or the public security organ. Faculty members who discover that a student has been harmed but fail to report it in a timely manner shall be punished. This provision can use each faculty member as a "node", weaving a web of discovery, prevention and control, so that the criminal acts hidden in the school can not be hidden.
Case Three: The rapist becomes a teacher again
Nana (pseudonym), a sixth-grade girl at an international school in Guizhou, told her family after school that she had been molested at school. And the person who stretched out his claws to Nana was Liu Moulin, a language teacher. After investigation, the public security organs found that nana was not the only student who was violated by Liu Moulin.
What is even more incredible is that Liu Moulin, who previously served as the principal of a primary school in Zunyi City, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for raping a young girl. Article 14 of the Teachers Law clearly stipulates that those who have been deprived of their political rights or who have intentionally committed a crime and are subject to criminal punishment of fixed-term imprisonment or above cannot obtain teacher qualifications; However, the review of teachers' qualifications is only the responsibility of the education authorities, and there is still a lack of clear and specific system requirements at the school level, and some schools do have flaws in teacher recruitment and review.
In this regard, the "Provisions" clearly require schools to close the entrance of good teachers, schools should strictly implement the entry report and access inquiry system, and 4 types of personnel must not be hired:
(1) Being deprived of political rights or receiving a criminal punishment of fixed-term imprisonment or above for intentional crimes;
(2) Receiving public security administrative penalties for prostitution, prostitution, drug abuse, gambling, or other such illegal conduct;
(3) Being expelled or dismissed for circumstances such as abuse, sexual harassment, corporal punishment, or insulting students;
(4) Carrying out other conduct that is included in the scope of prohibitions on practicing in the field of education.
For the faculty and staff who have already been hired, the "Provisions" also require the school to conduct regular verification, and if the above situation is found, it shall be dismissed in a timely manner. Schools should also establish and improve a series of mechanisms such as the Code of Conduct for Teaching Staff and Student Interaction to prevent and stop sexual assault. If the school neglects supervision, the principal will be punished personally, and if it constitutes a crime, it will also bear criminal responsibility. The Provisions also require education departments, procuratorates, courts, public security, justice, civil affairs, emergency management and other departments to establish a coordination mechanism to jointly improve the list of prohibited personnel and inquiry mechanisms for teaching staff.
The above provisions cover the whole process from teachers' induction to performance of their duties, fill the gap in the system of reviewing bad people at the school level, and are intended to purify the campus environment from the source.
In addition to the prevention and control of vicious problems such as student bullying and campus sexual assault, the Provisions also clearly stipulate the rights of minors that schools should protect, and there are many measures that are very novel in protecting the rights to equality, life, health and freedom, personality rights, privacy rights, and the right to education.
For example, the "Provisions" proposes that schools must not set administrative measures that infringe on students' personal freedom, and must not set unnecessary restrictions on students' freedom of words and deeds such as normal communication, games, and classroom activities between classes and other non-teaching hours, with the purpose of creating a lively educational ecology, protecting students' vitality, and promoting students' all-round development.
For another example, the Provisions prohibit schools and teachers from disclosing students' test scores and rankings, but require schools to take measures to facilitate parents to know academic information such as students' grades, with the purpose of protecting students' privacy and self-esteem, reducing comparison, and avoiding discrimination.
Children and young people are the future of the country and the hope of the nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping once stressed: "The whole society must understand children and young people, respect children and young people, care for children and young people, serve children and young people, and provide a good social environment for children and young people." To strengthen the protection of minors, legislation is only the first step, and the effective implementation of the follow-up requires the joint participation of the whole society. It is believed that under the detailed guidance of the Provisions, the government, schools and society will participate more standardized and effectively in the process of protecting minors, and jointly weave a safety net for minors.
Specially invited expert Gui Fangfang: Shanghai Home & Home Law Firm, deeply engaged in the field of marriage and family affairs, wealth management legal services