A judge in Linyi, Shandong, recently helped the family of a girl whom a boy classmate had frightened into a mental disorder obtain 10,000 yuan ($1,280) as compensation from the boy's parents.

Last March, the boy, surnamed He, threw a lighted firecracker at one of his classmates, surnamed Wang, after school. Wang gave out a scream and then felt dizzy.

Days later her parents sent her to a psychiatric hospital, where she was admitted for months of treatment.

Knowing that fathers of the two children were former classmates, the judge served as a mediator and helped them reach the settlement.