The education committee apologise for the corporal punishment.
The Osaka City Education Committee is investigating the suicide of a second-year high school student who killed himself after he allegedly suffered frequent corporal punishment at the hands of the team coach.
While the education board have yet to admit that the corporal punishment played a role in the boy’s decision to kill himself, many netizens strongly disagree. The article also brings up questions about opinions of corporal punishment in the Japanese education system.
From Yahoo! Japan:
Did Boy in Second Year of High School Kill Himself Because of Anguish Over Corporal Punishment?: Captain of Competitive Basketball Club, Osaka City.
On January 8, after the Osaka City Education Committee held a press conference explaining the fact that a second-year male student (17) from Sakuranomiya Municipal High School had committed suicide last year, they announced that the day before he killed himself, the boy had received corporal punishment from a male teacher (47) who was the club coach. Aside from a suicide note, a letter addressed to the teacher of the student who had been tormented by the corporal punishment was also discovered.
Education chief Nagai Tetsuro expressed his remorse, saying, ‘At the present time we cannot say with any certainty that there was a cause-effect relationship, but we are seriously concerned by the matter. Corporal punishment is absolutely unacceptable.’
The student belonged to the basketball club, and had been in the role of captain since September of last year. In his letter, there were statements saying that the boy was anxious about the corporal punishment and his responsibility as captain.
At around 6am on December 23 2012, the student hung himself on the second floor of his family home, and was found dead. On the previous day, December 22, the teacher had slapped the faces of students who had made mistakes during the practice game several times while the game was underway.
The teacher took his post at the high school 18 years ago. He was the teacher responsible for health and physical education, and was the adviser for both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. The boys’ team had competed in the national high school championships three times in the past five years.
In relation to the teacher’s actions, information had reached the municipal education committee last year that corporal punishment was being carried out, but the school had informed them that ‘It was not corporal punishment’. Given the possibility that corporal punishment was being carried out habitually in the school, the municipal education committee will request an inspection by an external inspection team comprised of legal professionals.
Comments from Yahoo! Japan:
ugt*s（ugt…）さん:
They can definitely say there was a cause-effect relationship.
あすなろサンシャイン（boo…）さん:
Corporal punishment is a difficult one. I guess it changes based on the time you were in school…I’m in my late twenties, but I never thought that being slapped and scolded was corporal punishment.
あゆふわゆゆえあ（atu…）さん:
Teacher, principal, education committee, put yourself in our places and make the situation clear rather than running to save yourselves.
Screen（sun…）さん:
In the article in the Mainichi Shimbun in the municipal education committee survey the adviser said that the ‘corporal punishment happened once or twice’, but when they asked other members of the club it seems that they responded that ‘there was corporal punishment on a fairly frequent basis’. To lie even though a precious life has been lost is just the lowest kind of person.
紫あさがお（nic…）さん:
Don’t escape to suicide…please, see that your own life is precious.
☆ＬＥＸＵＳ☆（aud…）さん:
There is a 99% cause-effect relationship here.
sewsswr（gmo…）さん:
I guess the coach has admitted it, so there is the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, and if there is also the letter saying that the student was distressed about the corporal punishment, then it’s pretty consistent.
花岡実太（atx…）さん:
Wouldn’t it have been over if he’d just quit the basketball club.
大梅太夫（mtr…）さん:
I guess he was a kid who had a strong sense of responsibility? It’s not so simple as saying it would have been over if he’d just quit the club. I don’t think that all corporal punishment is bad, but if you’re the coach then you should know the personalities of the kids on the team. You shouldn’t happen in amateur sports that coaches just demand results.
k*m*go*ou_ZZ（kum…）さん:
When you look at other articles, it seems that if they made a mistake during a match they’d get slapped across the face. I think that’s a bit crazy. Based on my own experience, corporal punishment was quite normal when I was in school, but there was never anything like getting slapped across the face if you’d made a mistake when you were trying your best. Of course, if you did something bad you’d get beaten, but you never felt that it was unreasonable.
一閃タロウ（iss…）さん:
I don’t think that corporal punishment is necessarily bad, but the teacher is bad. If you’re an adult, you have to make a way for the child to get out of the situation.
iibasaw（iib…）さん:
I can’t imagine corporal punishment to the extent the you’d be driven to suicide….with the pressure and the fear, I suppose the student wasn’t in a normal state of mind. Just like in the Otsu incident [where a middle-school student committed suicide due to bullying], to what extent are the facts of this situation being made clear? The words and the actions of those from the school concern me.
a.k.a（doe…）さん:
At the present time we cannot say with any certainty that there was a cause-effect relationship………The education committee are idiots, as usual. Seriously.
lun**nlun*23（lun…）さん:
There’s a letter, so I guess there is a cause-effect relationship.
calcalcal（cal…）さん:
What kind of corporal punishment? That’s what I want to know.
yar*ki*oki*ara（yar…）さん:
The poor thing, to have been beaten so much that it drove him to suicide…There is most certainly a cause-effect relationship.
通りすがり（bab…）さん:
The coach should explain himself!
しじみＺＺ（ham…）さん:
If the corporal punishment is written about in the suicide note, then I think that there is a cause-effect relationship with the suicide…
