Recently, a middle school student in Nghe An province was forced to eat dirt and swallow cigarette smoke, causing outrage among many people. In a two-minute clip, the male student sat on the side of the road, picking up handfuls of dirt and putting them in his mouth. After finishing the first handful of dirt, he was threatened to eat more and forced to stick out his tongue for inspection.

This is just one of the recent incidents of school violence. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a series of fights and gang-attacks that have forced students to be hospitalized, leaving them with serious physical and mental injuries.

This makes many people wonder why schools have given warnings and society has condemned school violence but it still happens?

Regarding this issue, a teacher at a public high school in Ho Chi Minh City said that discipline will take many forms, from warnings, lowering conduct, suspension from school, or asking for intervention from authorities in cases of serious violations.

However, due to many reasons such as age psychology, family education, exposure to violent cultural products... it is not possible to completely prevent the above situation.

On the other hand, according to this teacher, deterrent measures only focus on handling the incident after it occurs, without focusing on prevention and psychological support for students.

From a psychological perspective, studies on the causes of school violence show that this also stems from psychological trauma.

Students who tend to bully others are often insecure or have been victims of violence. They seek to assert themselves by exerting power over others. On the victim's side, they often feel isolated and lack support from others, so they feel inferior, find it difficult to speak up or find ways to protect themselves.

Dr. Phan Thi Thanh Huong, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Education, Saigon University, shared that school violence is always a hot topic, not only affecting health and psychology but also affecting the future, development, and formation of personality and qualities of students.

Psychological studies show that students who are victims of school violence will feel self-conscious, isolated, unable to integrate, and may be haunted for life. Witnesses of violence may change their temperament and perspective on the good and bad aspects of society.

Therefore, Dr. Huong affirmed that from real cases, students need to be aware of their mistakes and the consequences that can affect themselves and others in order to correct and not repeat them.

"Primary and secondary school students at a young age should seek support and help from teachers and their families when school violence occurs. High school students and above should be clearly aware of legal regulations and need to be responsible for their actions before the law," Ms. Huong emphasized.

According to Ms. Huong, school violence will only end when schools, families and society pay attention and have the right educational measures.

Schools need to increase psychology lessons, integrate the topic of school violence to educate students, guide them in handling situations when conflicts arise, and learn how to use social networks safely.

For example, in the new program, experiential activities and career guidance will increase life skills training, attitude education, and qualities for students to develop comprehensively in terms of capacity and personality.

Parents also need to pay attention to their children's health and psychology to provide timely support, avoid exposing their children to violent cultural products that distort their psychology, and set an example for their children not to use their fists to resolve conflicts when they arise.

Above all, students also need to be aware of the consequences of real-life situations, know how to be tolerant, sociable, love friends, and strive for a civilized and healthy school environment.

"When this roadmap is coordinated, school violence will be less likely to occur, avoiding heartbreaking incidents that leave psychological scars on students. However, this is a long process, whether students going to school is truly a happy day or not depends on the education, supervision and support of the whole society," Ms. Huong further analyzed.

Ky Huong