Boy arrested after assaulting female student at Ma On Shan high school

Police arrested a 15-year-old boy yesterday for allegedly groping a female student during a game of keep-away at a Hong Kong high school that has been accused of failing to deal with rampant bullying on its campus.

The Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School in Ma On Shan made headlines in January after three videos showing bullied students being pinned down and stripped, elbowed in the back, and smothered by a sweater appeared online in the span of just a few days. One of the incidents even saw several suspected perpetrators arrested.

On Wednesday, police again had to be called in after they received a report that one of the school’s students had been assaulted at around 9am, according to Ming Pao.

The outlet reports that a group of six male students approached a female student between classes, snatched her purse, and removed a set of trading cards from it.

As the female student tried to snatch the cards back, and one of the boys held them above his head, someone allegedly groped the girl’s chest and buttocks, Apple Daily reports.

Upset, she told her friends what had happened, and together they alerted school staff, who then called the police.

Police subsequently arrested a 15-year-old male student on suspicion of indecent and common assault. He was released on bail and has to report back to the police station in May.

A spokesperson for the school told Apple Daily that it would not comment on the specific incident, and that the case has been handed over to the police. They also stressed that the school placed a great deal of importance on student discipline — an assertion that has been challenged repeatedly.

In the wake of past bullying incidents at the school, social media users claiming to be current and former students have commented that such incidents are commonplace — one said he switched schools as a result — but school administrators have done little to curb them in the past.

The Education Bureau, meanwhile, told Apple Daily that they had been in touch with the school to find out what happened, and that the school had formed a school crisis management team to handle to incident.