School violence in Malaysia has evolved from what was once seen as isolated acts of bullying into more severe forms of aggression, including sexual assault and even murder.

Recent incidents have shattered the illusion that educational institutions are safe spaces for children and adolescents.

They reveal a continuum of violence rooted in systemic neglect, weak institutional safeguards, and a culture of silence that allows harm to escalate unchecked.

The recent tragic murder of a 16-year-old student in Selangor by a 14-year-old schoolmate, the gang rape of a female student in Melaka where videos of the assault were circulated online, and the alleged bullying-related death of 13-year-old student in Sabah collectively expose how deeply entrenched violence has become within the school environment.

These cases are not isolated anomalies; they are indicators of a broader criminological trend, one that demands urgent scrutiny through both theoretical and policy lenses.

Criminological insight helps us understand how and why this escalation occurs.

Violence flourishes when there are opportunities and when guardianship whether by teachers, administrators, or parents is weak.

In many schools, large class sizes, minimal supervision, and blind spots such as stairwells, toilets, or deserted classrooms after hours create environments where misconduct can thrive unnoticed.

The structure of daily school life, in other words, offers both the opportunity and the privacy for harm to take place. When these conditions persist, young people learn that they can act with impunity.

Critical role of school culture

At the same time, school culture plays a critical role. Children learn behaviours through observation and reinforcement.

When they see peers using aggression to gain status, attention, or control, and when such acts go unpunished, violence becomes normalised.

In the Melaka case, where the perpetrators not only assaulted their classmate but recorded and shared the footage, the act itself became a form of performance.

Social media has turned cruelty into spectacle, transforming aggression into social capital. When humiliation generates views and approval, empathy becomes secondary to entertainment.

The roots of this crisis also lie in the psychological strain many adolescents experience.

Intense academic pressure, family conflict, and social exclusion can generate frustration that finds release through aggression.

For some students, especially those without emotional support or coping mechanisms, violence becomes an expression of power in an environment where they otherwise feel powerless.

The problem is not only behavioural; it is also emotional and structural. When young people are denied safe avenues to express distress, anger is redirected toward those most vulnerable around them.

However, this crisis is not simply about the actions of individual students. It reflects the institutional and cultural failure of our education system to confront violence honestly and systematically.

Downplaying bullying or assault

Schools sometimes prefer to downplay bullying or assault to protect their reputation, while victims are silenced by fear or shame.

The result is a cycle of invisibility: aggression continues unchecked, perpetrators are emboldened, and victims learn that seeking help is futile.

When schools treat violence as a disciplinary inconvenience rather than a safeguarding emergency, they unwittingly legitimise harm.

The lack of a clear safeguarding structure compounds this problem. Many schools do not have trained child protection officers or formal threat-assessment mechanisms.

Communication between the Ministry of Education, welfare services, and law enforcement remains fragmented and reactive.

Cases are often mishandled because responsibilities are unclear. Without a coordinated system, interventions arrive too late often after violence has already occurred.

To reframe school violence, we must first recognise that it is not a behavioural issue but a social one – a mirror of how we, as a society, understand power, gender, and accountability.

The same forces that sustain domestic violence, workplace bullying, and online abuse also shape how our children interact with one another.

If our public discourse continues to normalise aggression and silence victims, then schools will only reproduce those same dynamics within their walls.

Need for moral reform

The way forward requires courage, not just policy reform, but moral reform. Schools must become centres of care as much as centres of learning.

Every school should have a multidisciplinary safeguarding team empowered to assess risks and act swiftly, not wait for tragedy.

Reporting of serious bullying, harassment, or violence must be mandatory and protected under law.

Teachers must be trained not only to teach but to detect distress, manage trauma, and foster emotional resilience.

Above all, education on empathy, respect, and consent must become integral to the curriculum, not as moral slogans, but as lived practice.

Transparency is vital

Transparency is equally vital. The Ministry of Education must publish comprehensive data on school violence, including how cases are reported, investigated, and resolved.

Without transparency, accountability will always be selective. A national safeguarding standard with clear protocols, monitoring mechanisms, and legal obligations should be established to ensure that every student, in every school, is protected.

Ultimately, the violence we see among children and adolescents is a mirror held up to the nation itself.

It reflects our tolerance for aggression, our silence in the face of injustice, and our failure to nurture compassion as a public virtue.

When a society becomes desensitised to harm, it should not be surprised when its children do the same.

If Malaysia truly wishes to end this cycle, we must begin by asking not only how our schools became unsafe, but how our collective indifference allowed them to.

School violence is not born in the classroom; it is brought into it. Only when we address the social and moral fractures that feed it can we hope to reclaim our schools as spaces of trust, dignity, and care.

-- BERNAMA

Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid is a Criminologist and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya.