A video clip posted by three students on a website insulting a geography teacher of Beijing Haidian Vocational Arts School has affected all students, school principal, Xu Suxia, said.

The clip, posted last Tuesday, shows an elderly male teacher being harassed by a group of students, Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

One student is seen walking to the front of the classroom and pulling the teacher's cap off to the cheers of other students. He later approaches the teacher again and appears to tap him on the face while another throws a water bottle in his direction. The clip is riddled with abusive language.

A female student put the clip online. It has drawn an angry reaction from Internet users.

More than a dozen people have visited the school in the past few days, demanding the students be punished.

According to the newspaper, Xu admitted the incident. She was quoted as saying the students were just having fun with the teacher and meant no harm. The teacher, in his early 70s, also confirmed the incident took place in his geography class last week.

"They are not bad kids. They just made a mistake. As a teacher I'm responsible for it, too," he said.

Xu said the three 16-year-old students involved are now too scared to attend school. She called on the public to be more understanding.

"Not all students should be blamed because of a four-minute video clip," she said.

Xu said school authorities had reprimanded the students, and they admitted their mistake.

She said the school will not expel any student because of the incident. Qiu Baochang, a director of Beijing Bar Association, called for more responsibility from society, families and schools to enhance the education of minors.

"In retrospect, we have to consider how to guide our minors to grow healthily and righteously, and it is inadvisable to completely blame the students, he told China Daily.

He said even teachers to some extent had to share blame for not being able to gain the respect of students. He called on people to be more rational.

(China Daily 05/31/2007 page5)