Police have arrested eight teenage boys over a video showing a group of students assaulting another pupil at a school in Ma On Shan that recently surfaced online, though the school in question has insisted the “playing” did not constitute bullying.
Video of the incident — which some readers may find upsetting — shows the teens pinning down a boy with three chairs, pulling down his pants, spanking him, and twisting his ear. While this is happening, the perpetrators can be heard laughing while the victim screams.
The 38-second clip first appeared on Facebook on Tuesday night, but was deleted shortly thereafter. At that point, however, the video had already gone viral.
A police spokesperson confirmed to Coconuts HK today that they had received a report about the video from a member of the public on Thursday, and a preliminary investigation found that the incident actually took place at the Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School last March, though the video appeared to have only surfaced recently.
Yesterday, police arrested the suspects — aged 17 to 19 — on Ma On Shan Road outside the school on suspicion of common assault.
All eight teens have been released on bail, but are required to report back to the police station in late February. The case is being handled by the Criminal Investigation Team for the Sha Tin Police District.
HK01 reports that the school has initiated a crisis management mechanism to handle the case, and that it was cooperating with social workers, psychologists, counselors, the Education Bureau, and the police, and had been in contact with the students involved and their parents.
A statement released by the school, said that after an in-depth investigation, claimed — rather unconvincingly — that “the incident did not involve any elements of bullying; some students were playing and it went too far,” and added that any incidents of bullying would be seriously dealt with.
But local media outlets speaking to current and former students of the school report that bullying was quite commonplace there.
One current student told on.cc that there are regular incidences of students grabbing other pupils and hitting them. The student told the outlet: “On some occasions the older students will come up to you and say, ‘Oh, no one has hit you yet, right?’ No matter what you answer, they would still grab you and hit you.”
A male former student told Apple Daily that he was beaten so badly by bullies at the school that his arms were bruised and swollen.
His parents informed the school of the incident, he said, but staff chose to “turn a blind eye,” and the student decided to switch schools.
An Education Bureau spokesperson confirmed to local media that they had been informed about the incident and had contacted the school, and issued a circular requiring all schools to take the matter seriously and implement proactive measures to ensure the safety of students.
Acts of apparent bullying are far from isolated to the school in question, however. A report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based on a 2015 survey found that, out of the 53 countries and territories surveyed, Hong Kong had the highest reported levels of both verbal and physical bullying, with nearly a third of students reporting being bullied in some fashion “at least a few times a month.”
