Harmful bullying in WhatsApp class chat

VG Ansbach confirms student transfer in parallel class
Bullying a classmate in a WhatsApp class chat can justify forcibly moving to a parallel class. The disciplinary measure is particularly permissible if the student has previously been warned several times about his poor social behavior and the incidents affect the educational responsibility of the school, the administrative court Ansbach ruled in a recent judgment of 18 July 2017 (ref .: AN 2 K 17.00250 ).

When children stutter, they often experience bullying at school. Image: Christian Schwier - fotolia

Thus a student of a gifted class of a high school must change into a regular parallel class. The ninth grader had already received four warnings in the past because of his social behavior. From July 2016 to December 2016, he was finally accused of mobbing a classmate in the WhatsApp classroom chat.

In the chat, he had posted a picture of a monkey with a big stick in his back and compared it to the student. Also, a link to an article entitled "Albinos are hunted like animals in parts of Africa" ​​and the comment to the classmate "... shut your mouth otherwise there is a flight ticket to Africa without return flight. I just say Albino-Hunter "was not missing. The suggestion that he would rather shoot his classmate than Osama bin Laden did not improve the behavior.

After the schoolboy's parents complained to the school, the School Disciplinary Committee recommended that the bullying offender be transferred from the gifted class to a regular parallel class. The headmaster then ordered the transfer.

Without success, the bullying pupil referred to his apology. Other classmates would have participated in the chat against the classmates. Even the father of the bullied student considered the transfer excessive.

The Administrative Court ruled that the transfer decision was not only formally legal. The school had ordered the educational measure otherwise rightly. Other, milder disciplinary measures would seem to be unsuccessful for the pupil due to his social behavior, given four existing references. A transfer to a parallel class presupposes disciplinary offenses of "some weight". This is the case here.

The complaining pupil was instrumental in the bullying and thereby instigated other classmates. He not only made allusions to the death of the bullied student, the insults were also particularly humiliating and gross. If the plaintiff did not appear at school because of illness, the class behaved much more moderately against the bullied pupil.

The behavior of the pupil had significantly affected the educational responsibility of the school, so that the transfer was justified. Although the plaintiff had apologized, he did not show any insight into his wrongdoing. The apology had come only when the disciplinary measure was foreseeable.

Also, the student's hint that there is only a gifted class in his school, could not change the administrative court Ansbach. Thereafter, the transfer is justified even if the student loses his gifted high school. fle / mwo