A boy is forced to eat feces by school bullies on June 17, 2023 in the city of Jiexiu in North China's Shanxi Province. Photo: Snapshot from Weibo.

There was no forced settlement in the recent school bullying case where three minor bullies compelled a 12-year-old boy from a disadvantaged  background to eat feces and released the footage of bullying occuring online, and the bullies all came from ordinary peasant families, the police made a clarification on Thursday.

The police explanation came in response to widespread public doubt over the handling results of the case after the Saturday official notification was criticized by some netizens as vague in such a humiliating situation, who suspected the police as protecting the bullies.

In the video, a boy, who was sitting on the ground, put the feces in his hand into his mouth and retched. Then came the voices asking the boy to swallow the foulant and warning him not to spit out. "No no no, I'll eat it," replied the boy in fear. 

Local officials on Saturday released a case report confirming the bullying incident which triggered widespread public anger, saying three minors have bullied one another minor near a village on June 17 in the city of Jiexiu in North China's Shanxi Province. 

According to the report, the parents of both sides have currently reached a settlement after the police have filed a case and severely criticized the bullies and their parents, asking them to make apologies to the sufferer, and psychological counseling has been arranged for the victim as well. 

After the official report, the boy's aunt posted another video online, showing low spirits of the boy and the boy's father. And the settlement part quickly sparked strong public concerns and doubts over how settlement was reached in a such humiliating case. Netizens questioned if the boy's family were forced to reach a settlement and whether the three bullies were from powerful or rich families to interfere the case.

In response to these questions, Jiexiu police released a detailed explanation on Thursday, saying the three bullies aged from 11 to 12 from two families were stroke the boy surnamed Li near a public toilet and forced him to eat feces on June 17. And the two sides did reach a settlement in the mid-night on June 30 after the bullies' families agreed to pay Li's family 45,000 yuan (roughly $6,200) in compensation.

The prosecution authority has intervened in advance during the investigation as the case involved minors. The education bureau, the school, the town government and the village committee have all participated in the mediation process, which has been noted in audio and video versions, according to the police.

The police said two of the bullies, the brother and sister surnamed Lang, came from single-parent family whose father is a trunk driver. The parents of the bully surnamed Yuan worked on the farmland. Li, whose families were supported by the basic living allowance, is having an one-hour mental counseling every day.

The police said as the bullies were under the age of 14, they won't get punishment according to China's Public Security Penalties Law, which some netizens said it was very unfair for the victim because if the perpetrators were three adults, what they did would bring them the imprisonment or detention of less than 3 years based on the Criminal Law.