Tochigi prefectural police said Monday that 32 windows were smashed at a junior high school in Sakura City on Sunday morning.
According to police, the windows of the first-floor room at the entrance where students leave their shoes were smashed at Kitsuregawa Junior High School. The school’s vice principal discovered the damage at around 6 a.m., Fuji TV reported.
School surveillance camera footage showed a young man smashing some of the windows with what looked like a rod at 1:15 a.m., police said.
Two windows at the same school were smashed in May last year, police said.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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Dan Lewis
Sounds like summer. (Doesn't this happen every year?)
Goodlucktoyou
6am on sunday it was discovered by the vice principal? what a life.
commanteer
I don't condone vandalism, but considering schools are so often a kind of prison for children, I do have sympathy.
Aaron Brummett
Another "smashing story"! I am willing to bet it's an employee... past employee... someone with a "key"!
smithinjapan
Aaron Brummett: It could just as easily be one of the loony neighbors who complain about the loud noise the kids make.
Hammerhead
The wonderful thing about Japan is, a story like this actually reaches a national or international level, whereas in any other nation, it would hardly even make the middle pages of a local newspaper.
Stewart Gale
@Aaron, far more likely it was a disgruntled ex-student.
kohakuebisu
+1 to Goodlucktoyou for noticing that the vice principal was in at 6am on a Sunday.
Regarding commanteer's point about kids rebelling against "prison"-like schools, a good number of Japanese students are disaffected, but the classic way to express it is through withdrawal, which doesn't attract headlines like spray cans and smashed windows.
Yubaru
I'll bet this "young man" turns out to be an underage teenager, more than likely a recent graduate or current student of the school.
Illogical
I cannot understand for the life of me why people (mostly minors or young adults) commit wanton vandalism. I just don't get it and I see a lot of it here in Australia. Can anyone please explain to me why people do this?
Toasted Heretic
School's out for... ever!
I don't recall us being particularly rebellious... burning our school ties and pelting neighboring schoolkids with eggs was about the limit.
Monozuki
I don't want to let the perp off whatsoever, but it's a little comfort that no one was injured. Given that the police has gotten the surveillance camera footage, I think it's just a matter of time before the suspect will be arrested. Hopefully this will happen very soon.