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Teacher grabs 3 students by their collars, causing them to faint

50 Comments

A junior high school teacher in Soeda, Fukuoka Prefecture, has been suspended after he physically assaulted three students by grabbing them by their shirt collars, causing them to lose consciousness, the local board of education has revealed.

According to the board, the incident occurred on Dec 19. Sankei Shimbun reported that the teacher, a man in his 30s, has been trained in martial arts. He told the board he took action to discipline the three boys after a girl in the same class reported that she had been bullied by the trio. The teacher scolded the three boys verbally, then grabbed them tightly by their shirt collars, causing them to faint.

The boys quickly regained consciousness, but one of them was taken to hospital with hyperventilation symptoms.

The board quoted the teacher as saying he punished the boys for bullying the girl by showing them what it was like to be picked on by someone stronger, Sankei reported.

The board released a statement in which it said: “We view this as a physical assault and we would like to express our most sincere apologies to the students.”

The teacher has been suspended from work until further notice.

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50 Comments
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Ha! Serves these bullies right. I have no love for the bullies. The teacher is indeed in the wrong here, dont get me wrong. But it would sure be fun to see those bullies faint in front of everyone and be exposed for the cowards they are. These 'kids' can do inhumane things to the bullied, and I wouldn't bat an eye if I see one get what he deserved, or even more.

23 ( +24 / -1 )

Regardless of this teacher's punishment, I hope these kids learned a lesson about being bullied.

21 ( +21 / -0 )

Fainting students? Reminds me of the stories about fainting goats, they just freeze up and fall over when they are startled.

A bit of an over-reaction by the teacher, but better than the non-reaction that bullying usually gets here.

16 ( +19 / -3 )

While I can't condone violence by an adult against kids, 3 BOYS bullying one GIRL? They deserved what they got.

16 ( +18 / -2 )

Actually, seeing how evil some kids can be, I can actually even consider the scenario that they faked fainting, in order to get the teacher in trouble as payback, to show him he cant do it to them. Not sure about the one with HYPER VENTILATION syndrome, but one can fake it since doctors wouldnt get anything out of him with simple checkup since body would be normal.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

The board quoted the teacher as saying he punished the boys for bullying the girl by showing them what it was like to be picked on by someone stronger, Sankei reported.

Kudos to the teacher. Three boys picking on a girl and then faint when they get the same thing. No tears here. Bullies only stopped when they encounter strength. I speak from experience. Hope the three boys are jeered and laughed at for the rest of their school days.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

he punished the boys for bullying the girl by showing them what it was like to be picked on by someone stronger, Sankei reported.

That's a perfect example of the full circle of a bullying culture. The boys should have been suspended, but now, because they are the victims, they will be molly-coddled and back at it by the end of the week with no consequences.

I fully support Japan's recent attention to controlling bullying in schools, but in most cases, the only consequences are being screamed at in an intimidating fashion by a head teacher or a good old slap around behind the scenes. Japan used to use corporal punishments in schools, but many teachers got carried away and kids were ending up in hospital with serious injuries, usually bruised brains from being smacked in the head. However, nowadays, it has changed to a no consequence system. Unruly students cannot be removed from the classroom because it is stopping them getting an education, even though they are not paying any attention. You are not allowed to detain students in their lunchtimes or after school because it stops them eating and participating in school sports clubs. Then, you have the 'monster parent' scenario with parents complaining to the schools because their kid is failing, even though he or she spends all his or her evenings playing video games at home, it's still teacher's fault that he or she is failing. Japan really has to step up to the plate and set strict disciplinary guidelines to stop students bullying each other and to stop the teachers bullying the students.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Teacher lost it so what, would you rather it be the same old lets ignore the situation till the girl kills herself or those boys do something far worse?

9 ( +10 / -1 )

School bullies... grrr. The teacher should have shut off the blood supply to their gilded beans.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Good job, if he didn't lecture those bad boys a lesson then he just turn a blind eye to those bullying acts and let the girl suffering,then he was a bad teacher indeed.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Something sounds fishy here. Just grabbing a color doesn't make you faint. Most likely the little cowards couldn't take their own medicine.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Publicly cane the little sods.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The Teacher deserves an award and the school needs to wake up to bullies cause suicide in those bullied or weaker than them.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I'm with the teacher on this one.

He sounds like a good bloke.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Sounds more like he choked them, than just grabbed them by their collars.

While his intentions were good, fighting bullying with bullying isn't really going to help.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

Did he choke all three at the same time (if so then how) or one at a time?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Give the teacher a cigar.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

wontond: "Regardless of this teacher's punishment, I hope these kids learned a lesson about being bullied."

But you see, that's the thing about it, which I meant to talk about and now which Disillusioned has beat me to (again); unless they are so ashamed that they cannot show their faces (which they will likely take out later on others), all they've learned is that they have a new power over those supposedly at the top of the ladder. They have effectually gotten the teacher canned, in all likelihood, and the boys are indeed going to be coddled and at WORST get a mild, "Tsk tsk!" after it. This teacher didn't take away the boys' power or turn the tables on them, he handed them even more power and get out of jail free cards. Just watch any teacher try to approach these three now on bullying. THAT is why you don't take the law into your own hands.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

"we would like to express our most sincere apologies to the students" Did the board also apologies to the bullied students ?????? I DON'T THINK SO. I guess these boards are all the same. The victims get more and more pressure and the bad students will be protected. And if some suicide happens, they did not see anything, they did not hear anything and they did not say anything. Monkey business !!! Shame on these boards.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I am looking at the big picture here. This teacher, who is trained in martial arts, knows how to put down bullies. He may be shunned by the parents and school but he might be an actual hero to those being bullied on daily basis. He totally needs to give up teaching school and open up his own brand of self-defense courses how to fight back against bullies. It would totally fly and make him much more than he would teaching minus the civil sevant benefits.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The people complaining about the teacher are likely the same ones to complain that the teacher never did anything to help the victim when he or she kills them self.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

All is based on direct assumptions but I bet that the teacher did not choke them at the same time and that they just claimed having fainted to be seen as victims. Except if teacher did it out of pure pleasure, it seems correct to physically punish them to save maybe a life of a girl. As like all who have been bullied, only this kind of punishment can be understood. Knowing that it can hurt to hurt someone else is natural deterrent. Hyperventilation is sign of cowardice by the way.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

He was a ninja.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I have no sympathy for bullies of any kind and nothing but respect for anyone who stands up to bullies.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It's called a collar choke in BJJ applied properly will have these results no harm just nighty night time !

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Bravo! This teacher deserves an award. This is the way bulling should be punished, not some round table discussion without stern consequences.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

3 students fainted after been grabbed by collar . I do not believe it . My greetings to the teacher . Until that girl commit suicide everybody will be cursing school and teachers why they did not take action . Yes , Let them pretend to faint 1000 time before they think of bullying somebody .

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Sounds more like a proper chokehold, possibly a rear naked choke or the good ol' guillotine choke (that's for other mma fans ;) ...Otherwise, (extremely) bad breath.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Fainted? As in they were choked until they fainted, or fainted out of shock..? Either way, this teacher is in big trouble, especially if it was due to the former

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I assume this was not the teacher has had such problematic behavior towards students.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

3 boys were bullying a girl. I don't know what they were doing to her, but that's just so embarrassing of them. As everyone says, the teacher overreacted but those bullies surely deserve some kind of punishment equivalent to what they have done. Learn a lesson!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

More like he grabbed them by their necks!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Big trouble with the parents. Lawsuit. Poor management training. Thoughtless for a leader. When kids see an adult losing it, they no longer trust them or respect them. They're all in a pit together.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Short wrist choke – In Judo, the rear naked choke is known as Hadaka-jime (裸絞め): "rear naked choke", one of the 36 constriction techniques of Kodokan judo in the shime-waza list.

You've gotta love the minimalist reporting technique where the absence of hard facts allows us to give free rein to the imagination! Zen Inklings anyone?

http://judoinfo.com/chokes/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is the way bulling should be punished

Yeah, these kids need to learn that bullying is only ok if you're bigger and older, and in a position of authority.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Well over the top, even if understandable and a good example of one-trial learning. Even at my very strict London secondary school in the '50's, no master would have got away with that!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah, these kids need to learn that bullying is only ok if you're bigger and older, and in a position of authority.

Disciplining bad behavior and/or rule breaking is not bullying. A teacher repeatedly hazing students after for poor (say) sports performance is.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A teacher will be punished for disciplining the students who were bullying someone? Meanwhile the government continues to do nothing to curb bullying among students, which is a major contributor to Japan's teen suicide rate. Quite the opposite, they continuously remove power of punishment from teachers who spend more time with the kids than their own parents. Not only that, they reprimand those teachers who take it upon themselves to discipline the kids who obviously have a lack of moral education and discipline at home. The local government and parents have put schools in charge of the children's education, discipline and upbringing, and yet have given the institutions no power to discipline the students in any way other than a stern talking to. Disruptive students can't be removed from class because that would go against the government's guarantee of education for every child, even when one student is preventing the rest of the class from taking advantage of the guarantee. It is almost unheard of a student being expelled from a school unless it's a private institution. Bullying is a plague, starting from elementary schools all the way through senior high schools, and nothing is being done. Teachers see it happen and do nothing; those that do, get punished. Reports to the BoE go unaddressed and other students turn a blind eye. And, parents are nowhere to be found in all of this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Pick on someone your own size?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Teacher lost it so what

I'm sure your carefree opinion would be much different if it was one of your kids that was choked to unconsciousness by a teacher.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Sorry for the teacher... physical punishment always works best for bullies

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Disciplining bad behavior and/or rule breaking is not bullying

No but choking kids out is.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Maybe the kids deserved to be bullied back if they were indeed bullied, but not by a person in charge of their education and well-being. Fire him and take away his teaching credentials permanently. Bullying should not be tolerated whatsoever, even when it is supposedly in response to the same.

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

Aren't martial arts supposed to be used to defend oneself ?

The only thing these three boys have learned here is how to choke someone with a neck hold ....

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Some words of caution:

physical violence by an adult is not a way to deal with bullying among children. the teacher says the boys bullied a girl, but there is no other source (here anyway) that corroborates it. Certainly thin ground for 'serves em right' comments. Bullying cases (if there is indeed any truth to the teacher's allegation) are rarely clear-cut, with former victims turned later perpetrators, accusations of bullying used for payback for some unrelated grievance, etc. etc. The world is not Doraemon.

The bottom line is: every school needs protocols, training and resources to deal with bullying that go beyond 'bullying is bad!' Lectures and ostracizing 'the bullies' (which makes it easy to use bullying allegations for, well, bullying) Many already have something in place, but more needs doing.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

SminthinJapan - unless they are so ashamed that they cannot show their faces

I'm sorry but, I have to disagree with this statement. Using the 'name and shame' is equal to ridicule, which is just another form of bullying. There are only three things important to a teenager, food, money and time. You can't take their food away from them although, some stupid parents do starve their kids as discipline. As an educator you have no control over their finances. That is the parents responsibility. This only leaves time for teachers to use as a disciplinary tool. This is the failing in the system. Teachers cannot use time as a disciplinary tool, which leaves them no disciplinary options at all. These kids know there are no real consequences for their actions and push the limits, as would any kid. As soon as a teacher gets angry the kids win and laugh it off! After more than a decade in schools in Japan I've seen so many teachers lose it with kids I have lost count. And, the craziest thing is, the worst situations I've seen have been in private high schools, not public. Backing kids up against a wall and screaming at them only millimeters from their face is a very common scenario. I've seen a couple of malicious head smacks over the years too. One was so hard the kid fell to the floor nearly unconscious and, this was only because the kid forgot to bring his textbook. All kids know what is correct and incorrect behaviour.They know this from one or two years old. How the parents and teachers deal with incorrect behaviour directly effects how often it will happen in the future. Children who are bullied, intimidated, ridiculed and bashed will only pass the same thing onto anyone they can. This would lead one to conclude, these bullying teachers are the biggest children of all! Anger is not a weapon, it is a weakness!

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

I bet the boys liked the girl and that is the only way they know how to express it.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

adult chokes out 3 children.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

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