Schools in the Osaka region have recently been plagued by numerous problems, including reports of corporal punishment that drove a student to suicide.
Generally, netizens have been shocked by the darker side of Japan’s school system, but in this article, which details the case of a school principal who hit a 6th grader around the head for bringing a knife to school and threatening other students with it, the comments on 2ch side firmly with the principal.
Should the principal have resigned over the incident? Or should the punishment for students fit the crime?
From Yomiuri Shimbun:
School Principal Resigns After Being Reprimanded For Hitting 6th Grader Over The Head For Threatening Other Kids With Knife
On July 31, the Osaka Municipal Education Committee announced the on July 25 they had punished a principal (62) from a municipal high school in Miyakojima ward for having hit seven children around the head.
The prinicipal resigned from his post voluntarily on July 31, saying that “I had intended to teach them something. I’ve reflected very deeply on this matter”.
According to the education committee, in May the principal had discovered that a boy in 6th grade had brought a knife to school and had threated other chidren, while six of his classmates who had been with him had failed to inform teachers about the knife. The principal called the seven boys to his room and hit each of them over the head. None of the seven boys were injured; however, the education committee reprimanded the teacher, saying “Taking on board what happened in the suicide over corporal punishment at Sakuranomiya High School in Osaka, when we aim to guide children without depending on physical violence, then we are deeply responsible when a member of the school’s management raises their hand to a child”.
Comments from 2ch.net:
マスク剥ぎ(WiMAX)：
Don’t get the point.
クロイツラス(福岡県)：
Take care of the brats instead, they’re putting the cart before the horse!
ラ ケブラーダ(家)：
It’s because of decisions like this that the kids are just increasingly doing whatever the hell they want.
It’s idiotic.
ドラゴンスープレックス(千葉県)：
WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? Wasn’t he just an amazing principal?
デンジャラスバックドロップ(宮城県)：
Why’d he get sacked?
Did the parents of these tikes make a fuss?
スパイダージャーマン(愛知県)：
The logic behind this is strange.
ファルコンアロー(大阪府)：
This is completely different from the corporal punishment that happened at Sakuranomiya.
What would they have done if that little fucker who brought the knife to school had harmed another student?
シャイニングウィザード(チベット自治区)：
Guess those kids are gonna be arrested for something at some point in the future.
They’ll just be convinced that no matter what they do they’ll be forgiven.
垂直落下式DDT(茸)：
This is too extreme. Are robots running the education committee rather than humans?
Well then, they won’t be needing their salary, will they?
パイルドライバー(長屋)：
Take responsibility when this kid stabs someone with a knife.
ハーフネルソンスープレックス(愛知県)：
Reckon in this case we’d be better off punishing the education committee.
魔神風車固め(三重県)：
Punching kids is useless.
If they’ve got knives, the principals should have knives too.
リバースパワースラム(長屋)：
Huh? Society’s gone mad. Those brats are the ones who should be punished.
フロントネックロック(東京都)：
We live in strange times.
垂直落下式DDT(WiMAX)：
So in about ten years’ time, the kid that was educated in this way will become a parent?
What’s society gonna be like then?
フランケンシュタイナー(長崎県)：
Ah, Japan is done for.
ハイキック(関西地方)：
So nowadays the adults who scold the children are punished, huh.
