In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, a 7-year-old boy named Xiao Ming (pseudonym) has repeatedly bullied classmates in school, such as throwing books or pencils at others during class, speaking loudly, walking around in class, and even kicking classmates’ private parts. Recently, parents jointly petitioned the school to request Xiao Ming’s transfer.
Ms. Wang, Xiao Ming’s mother, said her son had been diagnosed with ADHD after examination in the hospital, but the hospital did not issue a diagnosis certificate or prescribe medication.
Cai Xiaoli, deputy director of the Special Education Resource Center in Wuhou District, Chengdu City, said that for children with ADHD or bipolar disorder, they are far from meeting the standards for attending special education schools, but in regular schools, they are prone to exhibit some inappropriate behaviors. “It is recommended that parents of children with ADHD pay attention to their children’s psychological problems and actively seek professional psychological institutions for treatment.”
According to Red Star News, on March 29th, a parent of a first-grade student at a primary school in Wuhan, Mr. Wu, stated in the WeChat parent group that his child was kicked in the private parts by Xiao Ming, a transfer student at the school, “kicked three times, and the child was particularly painful.” Shortly after, another parent said their child had been pushed by Xiao Ming several times at the stairs, fortunately without any accidents.
Some parents revealed, “Xiao Ming’s initial few incidents of hitting people were called to the parents’ attention, at that time his and his parents’ attitude of apology was relatively good, and he even wrote a guarantee letter.” At that time, other parents were willing to forgive Xiao Ming, but the situation did not improve. Xiao Ming repeatedly assaulted other classmates for no reason, and even threatened classmates not to inform their parents.
Another parent said their daughter had been bullied by Xiao Ming for a long time, but because of her introverted personality, she was afraid of retaliation and dared not tell her family, “Originally, he (Xiao Ming) would hit my child every day and threatened not to tell, saying that he would kill her if she dared to tell.” Some parents said that because Xiao Ming had been unreasonably hitting classmates for a long time, the 7-year-old students were beginning to fear going to school, “They say they don’t want to go to school in the morning.”
On April 1st, 46 parents of students jointly petitioned the school to request Xiao Ming’s transfer, otherwise they would not dare to let their children continue attending school. The parents hope that the school can persuade Xiao Ming to complete the transfer by April 30th and install monitoring in the classroom simultaneously. Before the other party completes the transfer procedures, Ms. Wang, Xiao Ming’s mother, should fulfill her promise to bring him home for tutoring.
On April 2nd, with the coordination of the police, Ms. Wang signed a safety guarantee letter, promising to proactively transfer Xiao Ming if there is any further occurrence of behavior such as assaulting, insulting, or threatening to harm classmates. Currently, Xiao Ming has returned home and will no longer attend school.
Ms. Wang said her son had been examined at the hospital and diagnosed with ADHD, “But the doctor said 80% of children have it, and didn’t provide a diagnosis certificate or medication.” Therefore, she believes that Xiao Ming’s various behaviors are just because he wants to play with his classmates but cannot communicate normally, “and then he just taps or hits (classmates).”
Ms. Wang revealed that Xiao Ming once said he wanted to be noticed by other classmates and play with them, so he would play around with classmates, “I also told him that this is wrong, you should first improve yourself, and others will play with you.” Parents jointly petitioned the school to request Xiao Ming’s transfer. (Red Star News)
The admission brochures of several special education schools in China show that currently, the target students of most special education schools are mostly disabled or intellectually disabled children, with very few involving children with ADHD.
Cai Xiaoli suggested that parents should pay attention to the psychological problems of children with ADHD, receive treatment from professional psychological institutions, and follow medical advice to take medication to help alleviate excessive emotions and behaviors. At the same time, teachers and parents should undergo training and learning to understand how to communicate with such children. “Only by understanding the child’s psychology can we prescribe the right medicine.”