P, a student at the Ly Tu Trong Secondary School in Tra Vinh province, was asked by her classmates to do errands for them, but she refused. This was the reason why five other schoolgirls and two schoolboys beat P with plastic chairs.

It was quite a surprise that the ones who beat P included the monitor of the class, who won the title of excellent student for many years, a member of the provincial aerobic competition team. 

Twenty schoolboys of the Phuc Dien Secondary School in Bac Tu Liem district in Hanoi, after insulting each other with obscenities, broke into a violent fight.

During a fight among students at the Nguyen Du Secondary School in Hau Giang province, a female ninth grader was beaten unconscious and taken into hospital. 

An eleventh grader of the Tu Da High School in Phu Tho province lost her ability to speak after he was beaten by classmates.

Nguyen Thu Huong, a literature teacher at a secondary school in Thanh Xuan district in Hanoi, noted that even good students with good conduct also joined fights.

“Sometimes they come to blows just because of disagreements on some issues, or they were incited by friends,” she noted.

On education forums, parents have shown their concern about the escalating school violence. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, a parent in Hanoi, said he feared his son, a 10th grader, would be spoiled by internet and social networks.

“Boys at the age are eager for success and always try to show their strength,” he commented.

In order to ease school violence, experts say, it is necessary for schools to provide psychological counseling to students to help them understand what they should behave.

Nguyen Duc Son from the Hanoi University of Education emphasized that school counseling rooms need to be set up at all schools where students can come to when they need advice and solutions to their problems. 

“Students’ problems need to be settled quickly, or they will lead to immeasurable consequences, including depression and violence,” he said.

Marie Curie, a school in HCM City, has begun providing consultancy to students via the internet. The school’s consultants exchange views with students via emails and Marie Curie Confession page on Facebook. 

A Marie Curie teacher said the school gave support to students, but did not interfere in students’ private lives.

Thanh Mai