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14-year-old apparently jumps from 4th floor of school building

22 Comments

A 14-year-old girl remained in a coma on Tuesday after she apparently jumped out of a window on the 4th floor of her school in Kashiwa, Chiba prefecture, on Monday.

According to police, the girl was found lying in a parking lot at the north side of the school by a fellow student just after 4 p.m. Monday, TV Asahi reported that the girl had been on the 4th floor speaking with after-school club members when she suddenly left the room they were in.

Police suspect the girl may have jumped from the window and are interviewing her classmates to see if she was being bullied.

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22 Comments
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The stresses and pressures of life are tooooo much for adult let alone kids here, with little or no support. Hope she cab recover.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Police suspect the girl may have jumped from the window and are interviewing her classmates to see if she was being bullied.

Jumped? How about pushed? Police SHOULD be investigating that possibility too.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This will fall under the usual pattern. Everyone will deny bullying until the parents say that she had been bullied and in fact the parents had contacted the school several times about the incident, as well as the BOE. The school and BOE will deny it, but say they will keep an eye out for such practices. The proof of the phone calls will be made evident by the parents through records and direct confrontation with the homeroom teacher and board. The homeroom teacher will apologize, say he thought something might have been going on, and that he had asked the girl to stay away from those students. The BOE will say it had no knowledge of it and that nothing like that has ever happened before, though they will work hard to ensure it does not happen again. Four students will be forced to admit that they bullied her, though they 'didn't intend to hurt her'. The teacher will possibly resign. The BOE will be shown to have lied about previous instances and having no knowledge about this, and will apologize. NOTHING will be done to change it. End.

7 ( +16 / -9 )

. . . Smith is right tho. Everyone here just looks the other way. Nobody will seriously investigate into the roots of these issues. Society here will never change.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

too little too late, Japan has a culture of bulling and killing yourself that needs to be addressed and not after the fact.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

I hate to think of someone so young feeling so hopeless this is the only way out. But it's not the first time and won't be the last. People are not encouraged to speak up about their problems here and she may not have told anyone how she was feeling or what she was going through daily whether she experienced external pressures such as bullying or else internalized.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I may not like to agree with Smithinjapan, but having grown up under the Japanese system, it is unfortunately true. In my experience, more in rural schools than downtown Tokyo schools (I don't know about Osaka). Rural school kids grow up together and can form exclusive or hostile groups, whereas in city schools, the student populations change, especially between elementary and jr high, and jr high and high school. There are no really solid groups. That is my experience.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

In JHS in Japan I have seen older teachers bully younger teachers and student teachers. One student teacher jumped from a nearby apartment complex. Luckily she survived.

I don't know how Japan is going to change, when many of the teachers themselves are bullies.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Its that time of the year folks. Kids are passing and failing their exams. It has been known to push some of them over the edge.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Regrettable"

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I am raising a young son here in Japan and have experienced first hand the lack of responsibility the principal and teachers have when it comes to bullying in school and how unbelievably the parents could care less that there kids are bullying another student only when it is there kid that is being bullied do they even care. I have asked why kids never receive punishment for doing bad things to another kid I've even had the kids parents say if my son is bullying than punish him and the school here still does nothing about it.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

the girl was found lying in a parking lot

Oh, please! Was she caught telling fibs? Please change this to 'laying'!

I love the use if 'apparently'. There are three choices: jumped, fell or pushed. I would like to believe she fell, but sadly, I fear it is one of the other two choices.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Kevin Davis: "I am raising a young son here in Japan and have experienced first hand the lack of responsibility the principal and teachers have when it comes to bullying in school..."

I agree with you, but to be fair to the teachers they have absolutely no power to do anything about it other than, literally, hope for the best. When the old system of corporal punishment was done away with -- which I agree 100% is a good thing! -- there was zero put in its place. If bullying is discovered in schools in other nations, and especially if committed in class and/or directed at teachers, there is often a zero-tolerance policy in place that will see the kids suspended and expelled for numerous infractions. Not so here. That is actually one GOOD thing that Abe pushed for previously until the moms and dads pushed against it and it was decided such a law -- to suspend kids who cause violence -- would be 'unpopular' for politicians who implement it.

There is literally NOTHING a teacher can do. Even the BOEs have their hands tied to an extent. The government needs to pass laws that allow teachers to remove problems from the classroom, and even though the schools would NEVER call the police except as an absolute last resort, that needs to be done in order to enforce the laws if necessary. The system needs to change, and bullying will NEVER be properly addressed until that system is equipped to deal with those who will not desist from bullying after being talked to and educated on it.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Disillusioned, the word lie is an intransitive verb showing that someone or something is in a reclining position. (An intransitive verb cannot take an object, that is, a noun cannot directly attach itself to the word lie.) So, that is correct usage in the article. Your spelling leaves a little to be desired though.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Schools, BOE, (even) local mucipal mayors can be held liable (vicarious liability) for some cases. I hope Japanese officials wont keep looking the other way until the legal system exposes these kinds of suicides for what they really are. Lest the legal system itself is just as inept & negligent likewise.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

DisillusionedMar. 17, 2015 - 06:10PM JST

I love the use if 'apparently'. There are three choices: jumped, fell or pushed. I would like to believe she fell, but sadly, I fear it is one of the other two choices.

Actually, the only choice here would be "fell". Whatever the cause may be (which is unknown), it is undisputable that the girl fell from the window to the parking lot below.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Being this time of year I'm more inclined to think it was due to not getting into the school she wanted....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"the girl had been on the 4th floor speaking with after-school club members when she suddenly left the room "

... bullied.

Nobody //suddenly// leaves the room after speaking to people unless they said something to make her leave.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Is there any worse fate than a botched suicide attempt?

Suicides in Japan certainly affect us almost everyday, most commonly by delaying trains we wait for, and yet we do very little to prevent them.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

We all get to a point when we eventually have to rely on someone else for help . . . and that's nothing to be ashamed about.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Too little details and not enough facts. It could have been all of the above as well maybe a dare or just plain spur of the moment crazy.

Did none of you do anything crazy at the spur of the moment when younger and realized too late that it was a stupid idea?

More facts are required.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The question is about change. Can we believe change can happen little by little? Or is the system impervious to change and bullying and suicide are just necessary features of this system? I hesitate to have children in this society where choices seem so limited. Certainly these public systems are abusive and unhealthy. I don't know if they really can change. Plus, power and decisions are more and more with the old. Optimists: Let's hear something.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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