VietNamNet Bridge – Who is to blame for the rising school violence? Is the morality of young people degrading? Or do parents and schools neglect their task of teaching morality to students?

If typing “bao luc hoc duong” (school violence) on Google, the searching tool will show 2,160,000 links connecting to the stories about school violence. If typing “nu sinh danh nhau” (female students fight) on YouTube, one would find a lot of violent clips showing female students fighting.

Insensibility “cheers” school violence

The clips showing female students fighting first appeared on Internet in 2008. In early 2009-2010 academic year, the Ministry of Education and Training released a report, saying that 1600 cases of students fighting had been discovered nationwide.

More and more clips have been posted on Internet. The fights took place in many localities, from mountainous areas (Lao Cai, Yen Bai) to lowlands (Quang Ninh, Phu Tho, Hanoi, Nghe An, Ha Tinh) and southern provinces.

Though schools applied several measures to stop school violence (students, who got involved in the fights, were forced to stay out of school for certain periods), the measures prove to be in vain.

Just in the last month, at least three clips showing female students fighting have been posted on Internet. The fights began for petty reasons.

The 4-minute video-clip showing the “battle” of a group of female students in Quang Ninh province, which was posted on Internet on October 23, has irritated adult people, who cannot understand why students can behave so violently.

The noteworthy thing is that while female students were fighting, male students only stood around and “encouraged” the battle.

Several months ago, people once had the chance to watch a video clip showing how a female student from Tran Nhan Tong High School fought at a park. The clip showed that many male students were sitting at the park to watch the skirmish and seemed to really enjoyed the “interesting film”.

The students have so many nonsensical reasons to fight. A group of 8th and 9th graders in Hanoi fought just because they thought their friends called on their mobile phones to insult them. The victim in the battle was Nguyen Ngoc A, 13, a student of Van Ho Secondary School.

Nguyen Thi Huong T, a 12th grader of a Huu Nghi High School in Vinh City, Nghe An province who got medals on karatedo, also violently beat a friend in September.

How many more battles?

Educators have rung the alarm bell over the school violence, while parents have called on the society to take necessary measures to stop the violence. However, the problem still has not been settled. Journalist Ngo Thieu Phong has noted that all the clips showing students fighting have been recorded with mobile phones. The problem is that students used mobile phones to make films, not to call to teachers or adult people.

Some people believe that it would be better to expel the naughty students from school, so as to protect other students and create a healthy learning environment.

However, Lawyer Nguyen Van Tu said that if expelling students from school, adults will fall into the students’ traps. In many cases, the students fight others just because they do not want to go to school any more.

To date, no proper solution has been found to deal with the school violence.

Of the 1600 cases of students fighting discovered by the Ministry of Education and Training, 735 students were forced to stay off school for three day-one year. However, this still hasn’t helped to ease the school violence.

N. Hien