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Fukushima professor threatens students with expulsion for leaving prefecture in coronavirus crisis

18 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Ohu University, located in the town of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, offers courses in dentistry and pharmaceutical sciences. With that sort of educational focus, it’s not surprising that the faculty would be particularly sensitive towards public health issues, and as a result extra concerned about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Even still, 89 fourth-year students in the private university’s dentistry department were startled when they read an email from one of their professors which included the following warning: “Please do not leave Fukushima Prefecture between now and May 6. If you are found to have left the prefecture, you will be expelled.”

The mail was sent on April 10, the first Friday following the start of classes at Ohu University for the new school year. The May 6 date seems to be in reference to the state of emergency announced by the Japanese government for certain parts of the country on April 6, which is tentatively scheduled to last one month. (Since then, the Japanese government has extended the state of emergency to cover every prefecture.)

However, the state of emergency has been declared for Tokyo and the prefectures of Osaka, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo, and Fukuoka, none of which border Fukushima. And while the students may have been studying dentistry, it doesn’t require a master’s degree in education to know that individual professors don’t have the authority to unilaterally expel students.

Eventually word got back around to Ohu University president Kazuo Seino, who has since issued a statement refuting the threat in the professor’s email. While the school has asked students to voluntarily refrain from traveling to parts of Japan that are under the state of emergency designation, it has no policies confining students to Fukushima Prefecture, and Seino offered his apologies to students and their families for any fear or confusion the email may have caused.

In explaining his actions, the professor, whose name has not been released, said, “As students of medicine, I wanted them to act responsibly…[but] I was not trying to say that I would have them expelled.” That last part doesn’t really mesh with the email’s straightforward “you will be expelled,” but it does at least sound like the professor’s intent was to use a scare tactic to keep students local on their days off, not actually ruin anyone’s academic career.

Sources: NHK, Asahi Shimbun

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

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© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

18 Comments
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Agreed 100% Burning Bush and Zichi

There is no reason to EVER suspend constitutional rights. Once taken they are rarely if ever returned. Realize this folks.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

"“As students of medicine, I wanted them to act responsibly…[but] I was not trying to say that I would have them expelled.”

Does the guy think the rest of the world are Trump-followers? It's right there in his email. If you want someone to act responsibly, say, "Please act responsibly (as people training in the medical field)".

And I love how the school feels the need to protect this man and not release his name... since he was not threatening expulsion or anything.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Welp...that's one way to lose the respect of your students right at the start of Semester i guess.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Legally speaking this has nothing to do with constitutional rights, which protect you from the government and not from professors at private universities. If your boss tells you not to go on vacation because he needs you to work and threatens to fire you if you do, he is not violating the constitution.

Not saying this was appropriate, just that it isn’t a constitutional issue.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

How could this expulsion be legal? It is just another threat from a bullying control freak jiji. Abe has now declared a national state of emergency, but that doesn’t make this threat legal either.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Professor can’t make that call.

Over stepping ones boundaries is also not a good thing to do at this time. Empty threats can’t be any better.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The professor can not stop the movement of students since it violates our constitutional rights.

No, the professor cannot do that because its a violation of university policy, not because it violates any constitutional rights.

The government can't do it. He has no legal right to control us outside of the university.

He isn’t part of the government, he works at a private university.

If my company tells me I can't leave the prefecture this weekend, in my own time, then it can not do that. 

I have a labor agreement with my employer so some matters it can request.

There are many things my employers can not make me do. Like I should vote for certain politician or political party.

True but your rights there stem from either the terms of your employment contract or the provisions of the Labor Standards Act or other labor laws. Not the constitution.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The student should be socially respectful to the guidelines none the less. Carousing around during a SOE is not being respectful to the teachers of fellow student.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No, the professor cannot do that because its a violation of university policy, not because it violates any constitutional rights.

University policy may not violate constitutional or legal rights.

True but your rights there stem from either the terms of your employment contract or the provisions of the Labor Standards Act or other labor laws. Not the constitution.

False. The scope of labor law is defined by the Civil Code. A contract that contains iilegal provsions is simply illegal.

Think of what it would mean if institutions and companies were allowed to usurp the law. Just think about it for a bit.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Sounds like someone has a bit of a deluded idea of his own importance in the organisation.

And Dentistry and Pharmacy ain’t “Medicine.”

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Where government lacks the capacity to deal with a situation then local people must step up to fill the gap. His intention was good even though he had no capacity to enforce it. Pity the University President didn’t have the balls to back his call. I am sure they could have found some rule to apply if they had wanted.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

University policy may not violate constitutional or legal rights.

Since by definition constitutional rights protect you from government action rather than private actors like a university, whatever the university does it does not by definition violate the constitution. You are correct that it cannot violate legal rights, but those specifically mentioned in the constitution don’t protect you from a private actor.

False. The scope of labor law is defined by the Civil Code. A contract that contains iilegal provsions is simply illegal.

Yes, the Civil Code, not the Constitution. Universities definitely are subject to the Civil Code.

As a matter of labor law this is not fully correct though, the Civil Code just provides some basic provisions on employment contracts, the actual detailed provisions on things like working hour limits, etc are found in the Labor Standards Act.

Think of what it would mean if institutions and companies were allowed to usurp the law. Just think about it for a bit.

Never said they were able to do that. I only said that rights contained in a specific law, the Constitution, do not protect you from a private actor like a university. This is not a controversial statement, ask any lawyer, its the way constitutions in liberal democracies work.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It makes sense.

When you are young, you generally don't pay a 2nd thought to your actions unless... it's placed up front in your face and tells you blankly in your face, that all your hard work will go to waste if you ignore the rules.

For a Medical Practitioner to be.. breaking the current rules, would question, your trustworthiness towards being such a Practitioner in future!

In this cas, were my Kids to be on Medical Courses, I'd tell them to stay put, study more without distraction, maybe even help out, start to practice the profession you're looking to enter into!

I simply see this Professor stating the facts in terms the new upcoming future Professors can understand in their current stage of life. "Get Real" !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Threatening students to produce fear is blatantly against the tenets of a university which should seek to achieve consensus through reasoned debate - not in Japan it seems...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I agree with many here. Freedom of right is the only thing that matters. Everyone has the right to travel in GW and spread the disease to every corner of the country to their family, relatives and especially most vulnerable grandparents. Also they have the rights to go to Tokyo and Osaka to catch it and then bring it back with therm to infect their friends and teachers. Freedom of Rights is the only thing that matters in Japan

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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