Netizens demand tougher stance on school bullying

Five Beijing middle school students have been fi ned for forcing a fellow pupil to eat excrement, according to local police, a punishment that was seen by many netizens as too lenient.

Beijing Yanqing district police conducted an investigation into the involvement of seven middle school students after a video of the incident went viral online.

The incident occurred during morning break in Yanqing No. 2 Middle School Thursday, said a post on the Yanqing police offi cial account on Monday. The post also said that the victim had suff ered physical injury and had previously been forced to pay the bullies more than 100 yuan ($ 14.6).

According to the police notice, fi ve of the bullies have been fi ned but they will not be imprisoned as they are under 16 years old.

The other two will not be punished as they are under 14 years old.

The scale of the fi nes was not revealed.

The 90- second video, which was uploaded on Saturday night, shows a boy in a green and white school uniform being forced to touch excrement in the school toilets with his bare hand and then lick it, thecover. cn reported on Sunday.

The bullies can be heard insulting the boy and threatening to beat him with sticks despite his pleas for help, according to thecover. cn.

The incident has triggered heated online debate with many netizens saying that the bullies deserve more severe punishment.

A Sino Weibo user “Baoguangxiaojun” said that the boy seemed to have diffi culty walking and that he might have been physically and mentally hurt by the “extreme and horrible” bullying.

Another Sino Weibo user “Fengkuanglaobeijing” compared the incident to a similar case in the US when Chinese student bullies faced life sentences, saying that the seven students should be more severely punished.

The video could not be found online and the person who uploaded it was unknown as of press time.