On the attack
Experts call for tighter security measures in wake of middle school killings
Astabbing attack outside a middle school in Mizhi county, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on April 27 that left nine students dead and 10 injured should be classified as a terrorist criminal case, according to Chinese criminal psychology professors on Wednesday. They also called for more systematic security measures, especially on campuses, to protect society’s most vulnerable groups.
According to the latest update on the case by the Mizhi publicity department on Sina Weibo on Sunday, the county procuratorate has approved the arrest of the suspect, who attacked 19 students on April 27 before being subdued by local police.
The suspect, 28, surnamed Zhao, assaulted the students in an alley near the school gates of the Mizhi No.3 Middle School with a dagger, read the department’s earlier posts on Sina Weibo. Of the nine murdered victims, seven were female.
The attack was a violent crime that was terrorist in nature and targeted society’s most vulnerable groups, females and also innocent students, Wu Boxin, a criminal psychology professor at the Chinese People’s Public Security University, told the Global Times.
Wu explained that the attack was terrorist in nature because schools are supposed to be a place where people can expect their children to be safe, and the harm done by the killing goes beyond the victims and their families and across the country.
Safety awareness
The Mizhi case is not an isolated one. On September 1, a similar incident in the Dongfang Primary School in Yunxi county in Shiyan, Central China’s Hubei Province, left four students and teachers dead before the knife-wielding suspect committed suicide.
China issued State-level directives in 2017 in a bid to prevent such crimes from happening again. A document issued by the General Office of the State Council on April 28 last year stipulated that education designed to enhance students’ safety awareness and self-protection should be included in curriculums of all Chinese nurseries, primary and middle schools.
Schools were also urged to conduct emergency drills on a regular basis to prepare students to respond to situations including fires and earthquakes.
Specifically, the document also states that a safe zone system should be established near schools, where a regular police patrol system should be set up, and police should be stationed outside the campus during peak school hours.
The enforcement of these laws for building campus security systems were found to be ineffective after the incident took place, Wu said, noting that the suspect was not challenged at any point during the course of the attack.
The large number of casualties showed that security personnel had no idea how to react during the emergency, reflecting a lack of training for such situations, Wu pointed out.
Improved security and better education on self-defense measures have been called for in response to the fatal attack.
More than 2,100 police officers have been mobilized to patrol and stand on guard at kindergartens, primary and middle schools in Yulin, the city’s public security bureau announced on Monday on its social media account. Students were also escorted by police during peak school hours. Police have established a cooperation and communication mechanism with education departments to enhance investigation and inspection of potential suspects.
Carrying a grudge
The suspect, a former student of the school, said he had been bullied and carried a grudge, according to a Yulin police notice circulated online on Friday. A report by the news portal ifeng.com indicated Zhao had suffered from depression, according to a certificate that Zhao’s parents displayed when approached by reporters.
A Beijing-based public security expert who requested anonymity rejected such explanations, saying that “having been bullied or suffering from depression could all be excuses the suspect is using to justify his criminal acts, and are not technically direct motives for such a crime.”
The expert also called for a better medical care and observation system for mentally troubled people at the community level, so that there can be early warnings of potential violent crimes.