Beijing authorities respond to viral article about bullying in primary school

The Beijing Education Committee responded on Saturday to a mother's article about her son's experience of being bullied at one of the capital's primary schools, saying that they will attempt to boost their efforts to provide "psychological education" to students.

Zhongguancun No.2 Primary School in the city's Haidian district wrote on its official Sino Weibo account Saturday that it will strive to end violent bullying and strengthen its management of children's mental health in the future.

The mother of a 10-year-old boy on Thursday released an article on WeChat about how her son was bullied at the school.

According to her article, the boy was attacked by two of his classmates in the school toilets on November 24. The boys allegedly threw a trashcan at his face, leaving his head covered with filthy toilet paper, reported chinanews.com.

The boy was later diagnosed as having an acute situational reaction, with symptoms including insomnia, anger and unwillingness to go to school, according to the article.

Parents of other students in the victim's class said that their children have also been bullied by one of the pair, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The article stirred great controversy on social media with many netizens criticizing the bullies, and the hashtag "Zhongguancun No.2 Primary School bully incident" has been viewed 1.3 billion times and has more than 42,000 comments on Sina Weibo.

Premier Li Keqiang penned a letter on how to best address the issue of campus violence in June, after a string of such incidents.

"We should enhance laws and regulations to strengthen students' awareness of laws and rights, and resolutely put an end to behavior that disregards human dignity and lives," said Li.

The Ministry of Education released new guiding principles on the prevention of bullying and violence among students on November 11, demanding stronger prevention and punishment of bullying.