crime

4 junior high students arrested for hitting their classmate with mop

27 Comments

Four junior high school students have been arrested for bullying a classmate by hitting him with a mop and kicking him, police said Tuesday.

The incident took place on June 4 at the school in Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, NTV reported Tuesday. One of the teachers at the school found the 14-year-old boy crying and the school reported the bullying to police. Three of the four boys have admitted bullying the boy since last year, while fourth denies the charge, police said. One of the bullies said the victim never complained about it before.

Meanwhile, the school said that in May, it had warned one of the bullies after a teacher saw him kick the boy in the stomach, NTV reported.

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27 Comments
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good to hear. I hate bullying in any form and this was excellent action for bums to be punished. It is never right to bully others for any reason.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. These kids have only been arrested. No one has been punished yet.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Virtuoso Realistically, a warning is all that can be expected for the first (known) offence.

Or do you seriously advocate expulsions for one case of fighting?

The more serious the punishment, the surer you have to be to make it stick.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

if the victim doesn't complain, that means they're fine with it

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Ban all those Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft game consoles for a year and see the outcome.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I agree Elbuda Mexicano The best way to deal with a bully is by sticking up for yourself. Even if you lose the fight, the bully will just figure that you aren't worth the trouble anymore In Japan, it seems that a lot of the bullying is done by the same group the person considers "friends". When I am on the train and I see a group of Junior high school or high school kids, I can often spot the one kid who is on the reviving end of most of the teasing. I just want to tell the kid to tell the others to go #### themselves, but in Japan such confrontation is rarely done. The group always outweighs the individual and the groupthink is unwavering. This is not strictly a an issue in schools but rather a social/cultural issue.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

good to hear. I hate bullying in any form and this was excellent action for bums to be punished. It is never right to bully others for any reason.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Bullies are cowards! Here in Japan, in Mexico, in the USA anywhere on this planet! How do we teach bullies a lesson?? Get creative and let your fists and or feet do the "talking!!" Anyway, this is what I learned in the school of "hard knocks" back in sunny but rough California, USA!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Nice to see the police mopping up the perpetrators.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I should add that I live near several schools and often witness this kind of "tough love" on the street. When I do, I intervene by telling the offender, "Shall we go to your principal's office and discuss this problem with him?" Actually I did drag one obnoxious little twerp there once, by the scruff of his neck. I realize, however, this problem is endemic to the whole country, so nothing I do is really going to make a difference. And the police don't really want to be bothered either.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Has the article changed, or is my reading different from that of some of the other posters? I don't see where it says that the teacher bypassed the principal; it appears to say that the teacher reported it to the school, which then reported it to the police. This is, IMO, as it should be. Good for the teacher, and good for the school, too, it seems to me.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Meanwhile, the school said that in May, it had warned one of the bullies after a teacher saw him kick the boy in the stomach, NTV reported.

The kid should have been summarily expelled. I hope there's an investigation as to why this only resulted in a "warning." And the teacher who witnessed the assault should be subpoenaed to testify in a civil lawsuit demanding financial compensation from the four brats' families. Let whatever money their families had been saving to be wasted on their university educations go to compensation for their victim instead.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

...why make them mop the school, of course...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I know what I want to do with mops and these bullies but I am sure the second I tried to post it here on JT, it would just get deleted, then I would get some nasty email telling me that I have no shame etc..so guys just use your imagination and think, what would this funny Mexican dad do with Japanese bullies and mops, if they dared touch his beloved son??

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Cheers to the teacher for having the jewels to step up and call the cops!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

One of the teachers at the school found the 14-year-old boy crying and the school reported the bullying to police.

I hope this will set a precedent.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Good this was reported, but sad it took a year for someone to notice.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Definitely a step for the better. I am SO glad to hear that action was taken and the police called in and bullies arrested BEFORE someone wound up dead. This will instill a sense of relief in the kid bullied (one hopes), a sense of fear and perhaps even right and wrong in the bullies, and hopefully this incident will lead to spreading of the word that bullying is becoming less and less tolerated. The kids can't be charged with too much, but hopefully their admittance of bullying and the eye-witness testimony of the teacher will lead to assault charges and at the very least hours of community service and a warning that if it happens again they will be sent to a reformatory. Ideally they should be any way.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Fizzbit. You're 100% correct!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Good for the teacher to report this. Local boards of education are powerless and thus the JHS or ES teachers are usually left to fend for themselves or act after the fact. Weird the kid never spoke up, but then again this is Japan and it's not really a country of "see something, say something" ... more like "see something, keep it inside for years till the guilt makes you jump in front of a train".

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I expect the teacher will be transferred soon for breaking the 'wa'.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

They had "warned the bully after they saw kick the boy in the stomach" "One of the bullies said the victim had never complained about it before". Is there something wrong here?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I hope that the teacher will not be ostracized for telling the police. The school bosses may not like this exposure and may wish to punish this "informant".

5 ( +8 / -3 )

"Meanwhile, the school said that in May, it had warned one of the bullies after a teacher saw him kick the boy in the stomach, NTV reported. "

I wonder what else the school did in regards to this? As a HR teacher, I can tell you that I would have to call both parents, victim and assailant's, and for something like this, he would get get a "principal warning" 校長訓戒, as well as get suspended for, most likely, one week at my school. Curious how they handled it.

I'm happy to see incidents like this not being brushed under the rug.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

About time a teacher got involved and did the right thing. I hope all four of these degenerates get expelled.

14 ( +14 / -0 )

And good for the teacher bypassing the principle and going to the police.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

This is good news. I was getting tired of seeing articles involving bullying where the tormentors received little to no punishment, or cases where the school administration was too scared to step in, or cases that end on a somber note. Hopefully that new anti-bullying bill will resolve more cases in this manner before they get out of control.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

"Said the victim never complained about it before" This is rich. Good on the school for reporting it and good on the police for arresting those kids on what I assume are ASSAULT charges. People need to understand assault.

23 ( +24 / -1 )

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