Psychologist Dinh Doan said when he attended the training courses on preventing sexual abuse, he realized that many teachers didn't know the law well. Many of them thought touching students’ buttocks, thighs and genitals was just for fun.

Psychologist Dinh Doan

School is also a workplace where teachers have contact with children every day, so the risk of child abuse can occur as in any other environment. In cases of child abuse, heads of school must take responsibility.

Meanwhile, teachers need to be trained to understand what they can and cannot do.

According to Doan, schools now tend to pay more attention to sex education, inviting experts to school to talk about child abuse prevention. They tell students not to receive gifts from strangers and teach them how to escape dangerous cases.

However, they don’t talk about what students need to do if teachers touch their bodies or ask them to go to the toilet with teachers.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Tu from Fanci Law Firm commented that there are still legal loopholes in sexual abuse, and it is even more difficult to deal with sexual abuse in school. To protect victims in the educational environment, students have been warned of the risks, but there is no perfect mechanism to stop this.

“It’s time to stop teaching students to become docile and force them to obey teachers’ orders, because this is just harmful to them,” Doan said. “Teachers are not always right and students don’t have to observe all the instructions by teachers in all cases."

However, it seems to be difficult to change students’ minds and make them understand that teachers are not always right.

Nguyen Hong Thuy, a parent of a 9-year-old schoolgirl, complained on her Facebook page that her daughter sometimes argues with her about some issues, but she dares not do this with teachers. If she does, she will be listed as a naughty student and receive bad conduct marks for the entire academic year.

Nguyen Van Anh, director of CSAGA (Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents), said it is necessary to apply measures to ensure children's safety in school, where an imbalance of power exists.

She agrees with Doan that teachers must be trained to better understand the law. They must understand that one is prohibited from touching any part of the human body without permission.

Regarding legal loopholes, Tu said there are many types of misbehaviors, but only serious sexual attack behaviors are noted in the law.

Meanwhile, there is no definition about obscenity and rape. As a result, executive bodies find it difficult to charge sexual abusers.

Mai Lan 

Man arrested over Hanoi child sex abuse

Police in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan District said they have held a man April 15 on suspicion of having child sex abuse. 

Comprehensive measures needed to end school violence in Vietnam

Vietnam has seen a sharp increase in school violence, which has physically and mentally affected students and needs to be curbed quickly before it gets out of hand, according to experts.