A suprapartisan group of lawmakers has compiled a draft amendment to the 2013 law promoting efforts to stop school bullying. The law requires schools to report serious cases of bullying to the education ministry and their local municipality, set up committees at schools and local boards of education to probe reported cases and explain investigation results to the victims and their families, so as to prevent the recurrence of bullying. The legislation, however, has not stopped serious bullying at schools from being repeated. Large numbers of victims have since taken their own life, while many of the victims' families have been left frustrated as officials and teachers refused to link their suicides to bullying.
The amendment would explicitly prohibit teachers from failing to take action when bullying of their students is suspected, and subjects them to disciplinary punishment for negligence. Efforts to prevent bullying will be a mission for schools "equally important" to the actual teaching of coursework. The amendment will clarify the responsibility of school principals for such efforts, while a system will be considered in which each school has to appoint a teacher in charge of dealing with the bullying problem.
That such a revision is being proposed points to the law's shortcomings. For the purpose of the law to be effectively served, teachers and school officials must first be reminded that it's their duty to protect children from bullying — whether or not the law provides for punishment against dereliction of that duty.