Parents awarded Y12 mil after child injured smashing milk bottles together at school

Seems like the American sue-everything-and-everybody-you-can-for-ridiculous-amounts-of-money-way has gotten a foothold in Japan.

3rd grade, that 9 or 10 year old. It's not kindergarden for God's sake, you can't monitor everybody when they are having lunch for not doing extremely stupid things. If a teacher would have seen him and scolded him, the monster parents would have immediately come, threaten the school and the teacher, and most probably he/she would get reprimanded. in US they started calling the police and get these little monsters arrested

Good Grief. The idiot was bored out of his gourd and decided to smash glass bottles. I think the boy would have smashed bottles regardless of where he was. He just happened to be at school. Instead of asking why the glass bottles of milk were passed out, why not place the blame squarely on the parents who aren't parenting? Their precious son is learning to pass the buck and I am curious as to how the 12 million yen will be spent.

It's OK, just to sue. But they actually received a 12 million yen. It's nonsense.

People who are saying this is a western thing, dont know the situation of monster parents here in japan.

Monster parents are just a symptom of a deeper social issue and they are not unique to Japan. They are everywhere.

the teachers are not doing everything they can to prevent accidents because they ARE NOT IN THE CLASSROOM for long periods of time. who leaves elementary school children alone? i mean who does that? this kind of situations is ripe for accidents and bullying.

From experience I can tell you that this is down right wrong! Teachers here spend more time with their students in Elementary School classrooms than I can ever recall from my ES school days in the US.

Homeroom teachers, with the exception (pretty much) of some arithmetic lessons in 4th, 5th or 6th grades, art class and on occasion maybe computer classes are nearly ALWAYS in class with their students.

Particularly in lower level grades the teachers are with their students. Exceptions occur of course, maybe the teacher went to the bathroom (heaven forbid ANYONE would begrudge a teacher that) or had to answer a phone call, or took a student to the school nurse, any number of possible reasons, but USUALLY they are with their students here.

I know.......I've taught in ES and was seriously surprised at just how much time ES teachers actually spend with their classes. It's a lot.

There is NO WAY possible to be able to keep one's eye's on all children all of the time, and I would think it is a safe bet that the teachers have TAUGHT the children to be careful with the glass bottles. I'll bet too that the kids rinse their bottles out after drinking their milk, (rancid milk can VERY smelly after a while) and pay close attention, particularly with younger grades, about how they handle themselves.

It's sad that this child got hurt, but accidents happen! Heck my son fell out of a tree one time while playing at school, and fell face first into the ground, (luckily nothing was broken) did I SUE the school because no one was watching him? Heck no, it was an accident, and he learned his lesson to be more careful next time.

The burned finger sometimes teaches the best. Kids will be kids and need to learn lessons the hard way sometimes. The lesson however here, that this boys parents have taught him, is next time BLAME others for your failures and you can get money for it.

It's a failure in parenting as I see it, and a poor lesson taught. Again it's sad he became disabled, most accidents with children dont have such drastic results, and while I can sympathize and empathize with the parents they are just looking to BLAME someone for their child's error.

8 year olds are supposed to do stupid things. Thats why we have grown ups - to try their best to make sure they dont. I dont necessarily agree with the payout but what genius thought it would be a good idea to hand over glass bottles to unsupervised kids?

As for suing being a western thing - maybe American, I dont know? But where I come from kids dont need insurance to go to school just in case they accidentally knock someone on their bikes, and when you do have an accident, you dont then have to turn up every day for 3 weeks at the hospital with baskets of fruit and cookies and other "gifts" tucked inside kissing ass and begging the family not to sue you. In my 10 years here Japan seems far more of a suing country than where I have come from.

Rather late but wouldn't paper milk cartons that I see all over the place been more appropriate for these kids? I suppose they've now gone to them. No use crying over spilled milk.

I have less sympathy for a woman who tries to open a cup of hot coffee that she's placed between her knees than I do an 8-year-old boy who may not fully understand the consequences of what he's doing

If this happened to my kid at school, I'd be outraged. Kids do stupid, idiotic stuff ALL the time. As parents out there know, we can teach our kids about safety until we are blue in the face and they will still do stupid stuff! I find it sad that (again) so many people are jumping on the back of the parents (not being parents themselves in the most part, I'd wager). The kid may be an idiot, the parents may be bad parents (or great parents) for all we know but none of this matters in the eyes of the law where the school has a duty of care. I'm really not into all this American-style suing, but if we agree that the school is responsible for the well-being of the child in its care and has been legally negligent, and I think we can all assume that they arenot just going to voluntarily hand over such sums of compensation for the injuries, then I suspect the parents would feel they have little alternative than to sue. And when they went to their lawyers, I'd bet he would say, "Right, lets sue their A***!) What good comes out of this, well perhaps, hopefully, lessons will be learned. And other kids will be safer at school as a result.

The attitude is always: Here ya go, here is some taxpayer money, now leave us alone.

The child’s parents had sued the school board for 36.870 million yen. On May 9, they received a 12 million yen settlement from the Osaka municipal government

Utterly ridiculous. Monster parents? I read this as asocial vultures.

The total lack of care and responsibility within schools in Japan has forced me to have to homeschool my children. Playgrounds are not properly supervised, children are allowed to run wild and put themselves and others in danger. This happened on the school's watch, not the parents, who had every reason to expect their child to be returned to them at the end of the schoolday with both eyes intact.

Yep, unsupervised kids will do that, the kid is not an adult therefore responsibility and care is the responsibility of the teachers and in turn the school.

I would be in basic agreement if the parents, BOE, principal, and system in general did not put the teachers in a position where kids are going to wind up unsupervised sometimes. This is like tying someone's hands behind their back and wondering why they can't catch a ball. If you have ever been to a Japanese school you would know what I am saying. They put the classrooms a few light years away from the teacher's room, principal's office and nurses office, off in a wing of their own. And believe it or not, teachers actually do have more duties than to have their eyes focused on 35 odd kids. Can you beleive they actually turn their back on them sometimes to write on the blackboard? Can you believe that when one kid goes to pee, the teacher does not flock all 35 to the restroom and watch that kid pee?

But no, unsupervised kids do do a lot of stupid things, but one of the them is not breaking those bottles or we would be hearing of this a lot more.

I remember a similar incident in Oz many years ago. We used to get a a 300ml bottle of milk every day. One of the kids tripped over the crate and got pretty badly cut up. I can't remember if there was any payout, but they did stop supplying milk to schools in glass bottles. I think the school board should be accountable for failing duty of care in supplying milk in glass bottles to the schools. Seems pretty stupid really.

So did the Board of Education learned the lesson or are they still providing milk in bottles?

$120,000 is not going to last very long. The money will be gone before the boy reaches high school age.

But for all most of know, the teachers were doing their best, the parents are nice people who tried to teach their child how to behave himself, and the boy is a good kid who just did something stupid for a moment that sadly cost him his right eye.

I think I understand what is trying to be said here, outside of the "But for all most of know" which I have no idea in the world what is trying to be said........If the parents are nice people and are trying to teach their child how to behave himself and the kid just did something stupid, what kind of message are they teaching their child that their own stupid actions can be blamed on others and monetary rewards are the benefit. It doesnt make sense.

I believe however that in this day and age milk in bottles is unnecessary and potentially dangerous, like the case above here. Where I am at seems like all the schools have milk in cartons. So maybe the Osaka BOE is at fault, partially here, for not considering about the changing glass to cartons before anyone got hurt.

But seeing as how this IS Japan, change only comes AFTER some incident occurs.

While I agree that staff members of the school should have been nearby, it's silly to suggest that they would have been able to prevent this incident (unless the boy had been banging the two bottles for several minutes)

Also, while it's obvious to everyone here with hindsight that glass bottles are not suitable for elementary children, perhaps that school had been supplying bottles since the beginning without any incidences and it therefore never occurred to anyone that they were dangerous.

I do find it frustrating that people do not take responsibilities for their own actions and that those who complain are rewarded. I can easily see why this case has caused an uproar.

These parents left their child in the care of the school, and had every right to expect their child to be safe and supervised. The school is in loco parentis, and has a duty of care to the children. If this child had been maimed under care of the children, posters would be bleating about lack of parental supervision.

12 million yen was by no means enough money. Milk should not be supplied in breakable glass bottles, children should be supervised so they are stopped from doing silly things that young kids will do. The school is culpable here, and its idiocy in supplying milk in glass bottles and not supervising 8 year old children.

I do hope the money goes some way to helping this young man deal with his disabilty.

"Back in 2008... a 3rd grade student who smashed two bottles of milk together"

Heck, I haven't seen milk in bottles since... actually I can't remember when I've seen milk in bottles, milk has been in paper cartons or plastic jugs like forever. In Japan it's been exclusively paper cartons.

Could this have been avoided? YES, supervision and not giving them glass bottles, who uses glass milk bottles anyway? The fault is with the school and lack of oversight.

I can't see how other people can see it as not the schools fault.

Noone should speak to a child, any child badly and demand they "shut up", Marie, it is just NOT how grown ups should talk to children, or each other. Its abusive. Teachers should be able to run a classroom without resorting to abuse.

I DO hope you dont work with young children if you think that is an acceptable way to talk to them.

This can't happen in the U.S. anymore. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON'T SELL MILK IN GLASS CONTAINERS. I'm 52 and even back when I was in elementary school, milk was served in paper cartons. Who was the Japanese brainiac that decided milk served to elementary kids needs to be in a glass container?

@tmarie: Its not the parents job to do the teachers job, the school needs to hire more teachers or helpers.

With Y12M on their hands, the parents must be at the pachinko parlors as of this time..

“Monster Parents.” These types of parents are known for harassing school faculty and staff with unreasonable complaints like their children’s poor grades when they should instead be focusing on the child’s own work habits.

I think that may have a lot to do with it. Also I think Japan's law of it still being part of your fault for being there is to blame. Case in point, if you have an accident in a car when someone rear ends you, in most places the person who ran into you is at fault. In Japan, that person is at fault, but you are also at fault for how it was explained to me for "being there when you should not have been" in other words it is everyones fault the accident happened.

I think that the courts just should have said you should have taught you kid better to not bang glasses together. 8 years old is old enough to know that something like that will hurt.

Y12 million is not a king's ransom.

Seems like the American sue-everything-and-everybody-you-can-for-ridiculous-amounts-of-money-way has gotten a foothold in Japan.

@reaperinc....yes you're right. Suing syndrome for money have invaded Japan. As someone have told me, that's how they do it in the United Staes of A. Many more Western influence is here to stay.

Japanese society is quickly turning into a contest to see who can become the biggest and most celebrated victim.

"But for all most of know, the teachers were doing their best, the parents are nice people who tried to teach their child how to behave himself, and the boy is a good kid who just did something stupid for a moment that sadly cost him his right eye."

But for all most of know--huh?

Terrible accident all my sympathy for the kid and the parents, meanwhile I must say:

Kids do stupid things sometimes and even if a teacher were present, they probably couldn't have prevented the outcome.

So true and in this case either the kid never displayed any unusual or silly unreasonable behavior, in which case the above quote stands, or , yes he was known for that, in which case it's the parents negligence and responsibility of not notifying the school for necessary precaution and preparedness.

growing trend of what are called "Monster Parents" These types of parents are known for harassing school faculty and staff with unreasonable complaints like their children's poor grades when they should instead be focusing on the child's own work habits.

Yes, it is true in general, although I don't clearly understand whether it applies to this case.

3rd grade, that 9 or 10 year old.

Actually, I dont know about other countries but here it is 8-9 years old. I know it sounds pedantic (sorry!) but I would expect an 8 year old to do something stupid - by 10 I would be expecting them to have a little more sense.

"they received a 12 million yen settlement from the Osaka municipal government"

If I was an Osaka taxpayer, I'd be pissed. How on Earth was this the fault of the school board?

"the maximum safe serving temperature - a temperature at which coffee will feel plenty hot to the taste but will not cause serious bodily damage if spilled"

Oh good grief, if coffee doesn't burn the skin if spilled, it's not hot enough to properly enjoy. Coffee should be served piping hot.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE SCHOOL BOARD?? Supplying milk in glass bottles, especially in elementary schools, is a disaster waiting to happen. Now the poor kid is blind in one eye. The family should be awarded damages ten times what they got.

I have less sympathy for a woman who tries to open a cup of hot coffee

Newsman, this is not about sympathy. Its about fairness.

@valued_customer: I don't think it is fair to leave children unattended with a danger item and cause physical harm to themselves or people around them. The school needs to be and was published for such a stupid act of neglect.

I would be in basic agreement if the parents, BOE, principal, and system in general did not put the teachers in a position where kids are going to wind up unsupervised sometimes

I think we are arguing the same point, if there was no teacher there to supervise then that is the fault of the school, BOE, principal and perhaps general school funding, if they don't have enough staff or budget or even trained staff what-ever the reason it is still the fault the school for allowing the situation of events to occur, I can not see how an understaffed school is the fault of a parent.

it is still the fault the school for allowing the situation of events to occur

In case of staff shortage I think you need to point the finger at the government - and the public who allows them to cut staff numbers and care. Why can't PTA moms come and help out at school? If anything, the kids and teachers would benefit most by an extra pair of eyes helping out. Perhaps some of the old folks in the town who are looking for something to do? I don't get why this isn't done here. Perfect solution. Retired people or PTA moms wanting something to do could be a huge help at schools here. Wasted resource.

As for milk bottles, have parents been complaining about them being dangerous? Were there accidents before? No? Then you really can't fault the school for using them.

I think we are arguing the same point, if there was no teacher there to supervise then that is the fault of the school, BOE, principal

The difference is that I also blame the parents. They know the situation but do nothing and say nothing. Then when something happens, they want money. These parents had 2 full years to point out that one teacher per 35 or so kids is not enough, or to demand that teachers have fewer duties so that that one teacher can keep his or her eye on the kids more. Do you think they ever said anything?

And also I bet they knew their kid was likely to pull a stupid stunt like this. I bet everybody did. What did the parents do about it? I bet nothing.

BECAUSE THEY DON'T SELL MILK IN GLASS CONTAINERS.

Wrong. Glass containers are making a comeback as they are better for the environment. This was a freak accident because of ONE child. Banning glass bottles would be just silly - much like when revolving doors were all done away with years ago because ONE killed died (under supervision of his parents). Perhaps teaching kids not to smash them together and try to break them would be better and easier?

If McDonalds had to stop serving their coffee it dangerous temperatures, it would only ever be served luke-warm.

Nonsense. The area between luck-warm and third degree burns is first and second degree burns, which is still hot. Everybody else got by without complaints while McD's was seriously scalding its customers.

tmarie, the kid's what, eight years old? I doubt anything the parents taught him would stop him from showing off in front of his friends.

tmarie: this isn't about raising the kids it is about supervision, the school was legally responsible for the care and well being of these kids and failed.

This is a stupid 8 year old but most 8 years are idiots... they are children after all. I don't glass bottles as being more environmental than paper ones. I can't believe that a school, today, have glass bottles in elementary school. They are just too easy to break and cause harm. That's why most juices and drinks are not in glass bottles anymore. Even alcohol is increasingly in plastic. I wonder if they would serve milk in glass bottles in that "barefoot" school?

@tmarie: Yes

Gogo, I asked and Cleo said no.... I'd divorce and then sue.

Dunno who Cleo is, but you can sue your wife / husband in Japan. The mod deleted my examples.

I don't glass bottles as being more environmental than paper ones.

Paper is totally recyclable, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling

I asked and Cleo said no....

I didn't say Dad can't sue, I said there was no point suing a person whose money all came out of your own wallet. It's quite common I think (no stats, just impressions) for parents to end up divorced when a child is killed while in the care of one or other parent; the other parent can never forgive and forget. Hardly surprising.

@tmarie: This topic isn't about recyclable goods it is about safety and responsibility.

All readers back on topic please. Posts that do not focus on the story will be removed.

all you thumbs down people - do you really enjoy sending your kids off to school where teachers have much more to do than teaching their students and often leave the playground, halls and classrooms unattended? good for you, then. i was happy so i complained. didnt do much good but i feel there was attention brought to this problem in my sons school anyway.

sillygirl: I'm with you, children's safety is the most important.

About 150, 000 dollars, invested well, will more than provide for a good bit of something in the future.

I bet 12million yen the kids said "KANPAI" I hear kids say to kids, adults say to kids and kids say to adluts all the time..I wish I was 8 years old at Burger King and said "bottoms up or no worries" before I drank my HI-C...95% parents fault 5% society...

the teachers are not doing everything they can to prevent accidents because they ARE NOT IN THE CLASSROOM for long periods of time. who leaves elementary school children alone? i mean who does that? this kind of situations is ripe for accidents and bullying.

@yubaru - lucky for you but in my experience of teaching in elem school in the us and japan - the teachers in the us have much more watching duty. i did lunch room, playground and hall/front of school everyday duty in rotation. i wonder if there was a teacher on the playground when your tyke fell. i am guessing not. teachers in japan have way too much to do that has little to do with teaching/students. i think they should lessen the burden on teachers in japan. but my opinion stands that teachers often leave the classroom (we got the roving teachers to cover our room when we had to use the facilities) and this is when accidents and bullying are more prone to happen. and please note i did not agree nor disagree with the ruling i merely made observations.

Kids do a lot of stupid stuff. Give them something even slightly dangerous and after enough time with enough kids an accident will happen. I remember a kid a few grades older than me who lost an eye when the kid sitting in front of him leaned back with one of those sharp compasses and it went right in his eye. It was terrible, but unfortunately terrible things happen. Will it be fixed by switching to paper milk cartons? Hopefully, tho the kids will surely find ways to injure themselves anyway.

The 12mill payment, however, is atrocious.

Remember that stupid cow that sued McDonald's in the U.S. when she burned herself with a coffee that she placed between her thighs and crushed after driving away from the drive through?

Yeah. She got third degree burns and required skin grafts. Ever spilled coffee on yourself? You don't expect third degree burns. It was that bad because McDees was intentionally serving coffee way too hot, and thousands got burned and they knew it, but did nothing. Look it up on Snopes. Her case was legit.

But this case? I don't think so. Its not like those bottles are made of thin glass. It must have taken some extreme activity to shatter one. And that is why the makers are not being held at fault. But why the school? Everybody knows its typically 35 kids to one teacher. And everybody knows teachers are overloaded with a lot of unnecessary duties. And everyone knows that teachers sometimes have to go pee, or take a kid to the school nurse. So everybody knows kids will be left unnattended sometimes. Also, everybody knows that the sky is limit for bad behavior and the teacher cannot toss out problems kids. Its a recipie for disaster and the only surprising thing about this is that it does not happen at least once a year.

Everybody knows the situation at the schools. But the many McDees customers did not know the coffee was way hotter than anything you would brew at home and would give you third degree burns. Apples and oranges. Knowledge is key.

It was that bad because McDees was intentionally serving coffee way too hot, and thousands got burned and they knew it, but did nothing.

This is exactly right. The ability of a liquid to cause serious burns depends on its temperature and how long it remains in contact with the skin. The manufacturers of all coffee-making equipment for the restaurant industry know this and provide strict guidance on the maximum recommended safe serving temperature -- a temperature at which coffee will feel plenty hot to the taste but will not cause serious bodily damage if spilled.

McDonalds instructed their franchises to ignore the recommended safe serving temperature and crank it up to a scalding 190 degrees -- over 25 degrees higher than the maximum recommended temp. Many people besides the woman in question were seriously burned, and it was McDonald's willful and arrogant disregard of public safety that caused the jury to come to the conclusion that they had to be given a punishment they would pay attention to.

Oh good grief, if coffee doesn't burn the skin if spilled, it's not hot enough to properly enjoy. Coffee should be served piping hot.

At the recommended serving temperature -- 165 degrees -- coffee will feel "piping hot" to the taste.

You are foolishly forgetting the second part of the equation: the duration of contact with the skin to cause serious injury. At 165 degrees, coffee will burn the skin, but it will take nearly a minute of contact at that same temperature to cause second and third-degree burns. We know that a liquid will immediate decrease in temperature when it is spilled on a cooler surface, and so the likelihood of serious damage decreases further. Plus, the person has more time to remove clothing in contact with the skin.

McDonalds served its coffee at a truly dangerous 190 degrees. A cup of scalding liquid accidentally spilled from a counter onto the head of a child would cause immediate and serious burning.

If you can't accept that, you should get a thermometer and prove it for yourself.

Well that is daft, are children not allowed to handle glass now, do we need plastic cups all the time? The child did a stupid thing in a moment, if he had been allowed to handle glass when he was younger he would have known better, no doubt the obsession with protecting children has left them in a world of ignorant bliss. As to Mcdonalds serving coffee too hot, just under 100c, thats what you want a coffee or tea to be after its been made. Thats what most everyone does at home, but suddenly because its a restaurant its too hot and its wrong? Ridiculous.

Thats what most everyone does at home, but suddenly because its a restaurant its too hot and its wrong? Ridiculous.

Do you pour it in a flimsy styrofoam cup at home then jump in the car? McDonald's customers might be careless but McDonald's knows that, knew that, and sat on their hands while customer after customer got burned doing what was well known by all restauranteurs to be a practice that got people injured...right up to that fateful day that a woman got the skin literally seared off her crotch. McDonald's had plenty of information and time to preven that tragedy, but decided that customers still having warm coffee after an hour drive was more important than a woman, careless as she may have been, having the skin burned off her thighs.

If you went around handing people white hot rivets, do you think the warning "Careful, that's hot!" is going to relieve you of liabilty for the damage? No. Nobody expects to be handed something so dangerous.

In this case, everybody knew what was going on and everybody was careless. So I don't understand the pay out.

I dont necessarily agree with the payout but what genius thought it would be a good idea to hand over glass bottles to unsupervised kids?

Sadly, many places use glass bottles and not milk cartons - glass is more "eco" so some are sticking with them. That being said, what child of 8 or 9 doesn't get that smashing glass bottles together means they might break? Ah parents here.... Blame the teachers and the school rather than themselves. Gotta love those monster parents who are screwing it up for the nice ones.

Even if a teacher had been right next to the kid, do you really think they could have stopped this in the split second that it happened in? Doubt it. Gotta love the "blame the school and the teachers, they're suppose to the be the "parents". No, they aren't. They're supposed to be teaching, not ensuing that dummy Taro isn't blinding himself with glass milk bottles.

The tax payers should be outraged. Perhaps Hashimoto would like to fight this himself as he is a lawyer or is he too busy bullying teachers to stand up and sing? How many teacher's salaries and student programs did that cost Osaka?

Maybe we should take away pencils too? Take away the jungle gym? Ban running on the playground? Perhaps lock them in a padded room 24/7 for their own safety?

Do stuff like that and these incidents will happen twice as much. It does no good to raise kids in total safety where they never learn anything about the physical world. You just raise a bunch of clumsy idiots that way.

Those milk bottles they have at Japanese schools are very thick, about as thick as the numbskull that destroyed his eye breaking one. Have you ever heard of another kid breaking one of those bottles ever? I didn't think you did. They are so thick you could bounce one down the stairs without a chip. This kid must have been very determined to break it. You won't find even a first grader so completely dumb in a normal classroom if you scoured 5 prefectures. Might find one in the sixth. Maybe.

This kid must have been very determined to break it. You won't find even a first grader so completely dumb in a normal classroom if you scoured 5 prefectures. Might find one in the sixth. Maybe.

Yep, unsupervised kids will do that, the kid is not an adult therefore responsibility and care is the responsibility of the teachers and in turn the school.

It is exactly the same as if you are walking to work and get hit by a car, where it is your fault or not you can claim workers compensation as you were travelling to work. The responsibility of the workers safety is the companies just is the same for a child attending a school.

Maybe we should take away pencils too? Take away the jungle gym? Ban running on the playground? Perhaps lock them in a padded room 24/7 for their own safety?

I guess you aren't aware that there are schools with stairs and corners padded and that there has been an increase in kids here with broken bones. Why? They don't know how to fall properly. I kid you not, I saw a special on NHK about it about two years ago. I nearly wet myself laughing.

Orange, can you chill out? Figure of speech. You're like a wind up toy just ready to explore on anything and everything to do with parenting.

The teachers blame the parents the parents blame the school at the end of the day the kids were the legal responsibility of the school and they didn't do their job for whatever reason.

It is criminal neglect on part of the school.

Actually, the McDonalds case hinged on the fact that the warning label was not sufficient. If McDonalds had to stop serving their coffee it dangerous temperatures, it would only ever be served luke-warm.

Gogo, or criminal neglect on the parents part for not raising a kid to realise that smashing glass bottles together isn't a good idea?

So when a child gets killed under mom's supervision, can dad sue for a payout? Accidents happen...

Gogo, I asked and Cleo said no.... I'd divorce and then sue.

I don't glass bottles as being more environmental than paper ones.

Then I guess you don't understand "reduce, reuse, recycle".

Paper totally is but you can't reuse milk cartons like you can with glass, can you?

Indeed Gogo but people are asking why glass bottles are being used. I provided the answer.

Cleo, if they get divorced and dad sues after, it isn't his money then.

Silly, do you have any idea how much teachers are doing? They can't possibly keep an eye on all of the kids at once. So and so goes to the bathroom, so and so forgot his lunch so has to call his mom, the teacher has a phone call from an upset parent, someone forgot a book in the music room... There needs to be more help. Why can't the PTA volunteer to help out at lunch hours? Why not get some of the older people at home to help? They'd probably love to. Yes, the teachers should be keeping an eye on them but sometimes they just can't. Just like sometimes parents can't.

The westernization of Japan continues unabated.

For those that say this wouldn't have been a win in the U.S.... SHUT UP PLEASE!!! It America (the U.S. of A.) that is known the world over for this type of civil action of the stupid. Japanese were never like this 50 years ago. Now that Hollywood has been in Japan for almost two full generations, where do you think Japanese are getting these ideas from. I'll bet real money that the parents are very young and in that generation that is turning Japan into graffiti gangster, wannabe badass, let's kill someone before we turn 20 because we can get away with it.

This lawsuit screams the attitudes of blame everyone else for my actions which goes hand in hand with "super size this and that", "shoot first ask questions later" and "I'll sue you for everything". Remember that stupid cow that sued McDonald's in the U.S. when she burned herself with a coffee that she placed between her thighs and crushed after driving away from the drive through? How about the guy who broke into a house in the U.S. to rob it and injured himself on a skateboard left on the stairs inside the house? He sued because he was hurt while making a living and now could not support himself. Lawyers that take these cases are half the problem but where do you think people get these ideas from?

The kid ended up half-blinded and disfigured for life. The school was proven clearly at fault because they wrongly left a group of 9-year-olds totally unattended. In a way, this childs life has been ruined and I dont really think the parents are going to be cracking open champagne. If you were these parents, would you be celebrating? And, honestly, would you just put all the blame on your elementary school child? BTW, in the US, the damages would surely exceed the amount given here.

This sounds more like an opinion piece than anything, but since it's here, I'll comment. The 'milk-man' went the way of the dinosaur, or samurai, a long time ago. It's obviously the idiot kid's fault, but the system will suffer. So, stop school lunches and let the parent's make the lunches themselves. That'll get monster parents going even more monstrous, but screw them. School lunches should no longer be provided by schools given this outcome, and especially given the fact that many parents refuse to pay, and that kids with allergies are completely left out while the families are still expected to give money.

Let the monster parents complain they have to make lunch from here on in, and let the schools point to this boy's parents as to part of the reason why. It's time these moronic parents started taking responsibility instead of blaming everything under the sun for their own failings.

The teachers job is to teach. And I suggested helpers. PTA and other volunteers. Blame the government from school budgets not the teachers. I know personally that teachers want and need more help. If the PTA has the time for countless meetings, perhaps they could help their kids' teachers?!

School wasn't supervising and boys will be boys therefire I blaime the school for not supervisoring.

Playgrounds are not properly supervised, children are allowed to run wild and put themselves and others in danger.

Perhaps parents could teach their kids not to run wild and put themselves in danger? Teachers are busy and have a lot of kids to look after. When a kid on here dies in her mother's care the mothers on here are make comments like "It only takes a minute, it could happen to anyone..." When it happens at school you want to blame the teachers. How does that work?

Yes, child DO run wild at schools here - I have been shocked by the behaviour by some but then again, I look at how they are with their parents and am not surprised. If I had 10 yen for every time I saw a child hit his mother and his mother laugh it off or ignore it... I'd never have to work! It is a combination of parenting and schools now being afraid of monster parents IF they discipline kids. Sounds pretty damn silly doesn't it as schools SHOULD be able to tell Taro to sit down and shut up but sadly, it just really isn't the case anymore.

It is tragic that this kid lost his eyesight and yes, a teacher should have been around but it seems to be a combination of both parents, child and school oversight. Share the blame.

In American, these parents wouldnt have won because the school fights back. People who are saying this is a western thing, dont know the situation of monster parents here in japan. Go check out some of the articles on the situation and you will see how non-western it is.

The parents could sue, that is fine but if anything, they should only get money for the hospital bills.

i also think a key word here is the students were UNSUPERVISED at the time. that is in adition to the monster parents.