A Chinese family sued their daughter’s school after the child was diagnosed with acute and transient psychotic disorder, allegedly caused by a horror movie she had watched in class.
The unusual case began two years ago, but only recently concluded in Court. In October of 2023, because their teacher was on temporary leave, a class of students at a school in Hangzhou, China’s Guanxi Province, watched a movie screened by the school with their and their teacher’s consent. No details about the film have been disclosed to the press, but according to the parents of one of the students, it was a horror movie that had a very serious impact on her. Problems allegedly began on the evening following the screening, when the young girl began exhibiting unusual symptoms, including incoherence and a loss of touch with reality. Panicked by her behavior, the parents took her to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with “acute and transient psychotic disorder.”
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The student’s parents filed a lawsuit against the school, seeking 30,000 yuan ($42,000) in damages. They claimed that watching horror movies directly contributed to their daughter’s mental illness and that the school failed to properly fulfill its educational supervision duties. Medical records showed that neither the child nor other members of her family had any history of mental illness.
On the other hand, the school denied full responsibility, insisting that the student’s psychotic disorder had been caused by her special constitution or potentially existing mental problems. The institution’s lawyer told the Court that it only accepted 10 percent of the responsibility for the girl’s problems.
Before an official verdict was given by the Court, a heated dispute erupted on Chinese social media, with some claiming that the school could have screened a safer movie, and others defending it, claiming that the student’s psychotic disorder was only transient, meaning it eventually went away with treatment and medication.
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In the end, a judge ruled that the school that authorized the horror movie was negligent in approving the screening and 30 percent responsible for the student’s mental illness episode. The Court ordered to pay 9,182 yuan ($1,300) in compensation through insurance.
Acute and transient psychotic disorder can occur even in people with no prior history of mental illness, with situations where fear or anxiety is extremely heightened being the most common triggers. Treatment usually involves antipsychotic medication, relaxation therapy, and psychotherapy, but even though most patients make a full recovery, follow-up psychiatric monitoring is crucial in preventing relapse.
