Is Hong Kong Alerted with the Problem of Campus Violence?

Experts’ Discussion on Current Affairs

Is Hong Kong alerted with the problem of campus violence?

News extract

C4 Education Daily News 4 May 2009
20% of Junior Secondary students in Hong Kong become violent
School bullying is very common and it is getting more and more violent. A large-scale survey investigated 15,000 Junior Secondary students, discovering that more than 20% of them have violence tendency. There is even a band three school in which 90% of students have such tendency. Experts have witnessed various kind of school bullying cases. For example, some of them threaten other classmates by taking pictures of them in the nude, others hurt classmates with mirror. There are also other shocking examples in which a male student hurt another male student’s nipple with a cigarette.
The survey found that more than 20% of the respondents were classified as ‘attackers’. Experts further classify them into ‘responsive attackers’ and ‘manipulative attackers’. While the former usually develop hostility towards others because they used to be beaten or scolded, the latter are usually calm and lack empathy. Moreover, school bullying also happen in privileged schools and those students involved are even among the top students, making it difficult for schools to react.
The survey also found that adolescents living with their stepmothers demonstrate higher level of violence than students from single-parent families. Dr. Fung Lai Chu analyzed that children would hope to live with their parents. Many of them would even regard their stepmothers as someone who destroys their families, therefore developing hatred against them. Moreover, the stepmothers might not want to take care of the children of their husband and their ex-wives. The gap between the expectations of the two sides creates communication problems and conflicts, making adolescents more violent.

Current Affair Discussion

Dr. Fung Lai Chu, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong:

I visited a class in a band three school in which 90% of the students could be classified as violence-oriented ‘attackers’. Many of the students were short-tempered. The atmosphere of the class was tense and conflicts between students could break out anytime. Many examples of such conflicts are shocking. For example, some male students hurt other male students’ nipple with a cigarette, some take pictures of other students in the nude and threaten to upload them to the Internet, some female students touch other female students’ breast, etc. Some female students who were prefects or monitresses would bully other students in a planned manner, such as slapping them and taking candid photos of them. However, they could still be free from teachers’ inspections.

Mr. Wong Hak Lim, Convenor, Cooperation Scheme of School and Social Work:

The problem of campus violence has always existed. It just turns serious gradually. School bullying reflects the overall social situation. Nowadays, social morality is lashed by economic elements. Once there is economic value, no one would care about morality.

Dr. Lok Ping Pui, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong:

There are many factors arousing violence. Therefore, the handling of the campus violence problem requires cooperation from different sectors. Schools should face the problem and stop concealing it. However, many school policies require teachers to coordinate and thus depriving them of the time to notice the behaviour of students. Regarding the family, parents should instil correct values into their children. They should also keep an eye on what their children watch on TV and what they read in order to provide a harmonious environment for their children to grow. Moreover, they should care more about their children and teach them how to solve problems while communicatingwith them. For example, parents should teach their children not to vent their emotions by losing temper, throwing stuff or scolding their siblings, in order to prevent offensive behaviour which may lead to campus violence.

Questions

Referring to the information, is the problem of campus violence in Hong Kong serious? Explain.
Identify two main reasons for campus violence in the light of the information and according to your own knowledge.
Do you think the school can prevent campus violence? Explain.