2 schoolboys face arrest for violence at school, peeing from building

The Mainichi Shimbun
March 14, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080314p2a00m0na015000c.html

FUKUOKA -- Two junior high school boys face arrest after vandalizing school property, spitting on other students' parents and peeing from the school building, police said.

Fukuoka Prefectural Police on Friday sought arrest warrants for two boys -- a second-year student and a third-year student at a public junior high school in Tagawa -- on suspicion of violating the Law concerning Punishment of Physical Violence.

The principal and the vice principal of the school have recently been absent apparently since having a hard time dealing with the violent students.

The students broke tea cups in the principal's room on March 6, and the school reported the case to police, according to the prefectural police and the local board of education.

Furthermore, the students smashed the windows along a corridor in the school; damaged a locker in the principal's room; repeatedly threatened teachers; spat on the parents of other students when they were visiting the school; and peed from a connecting corridor on the second floor of the school building, police allege.

Apparently exhausted with dealing with the rampant students, the principal took sick leave from early February and has been on administrative leave since March 1. The vice principal has also been treated at home.

Many parents of other students at the school have complained over the problems.

The number of cases involving student violence at junior high schools has rapidly increased since the late 1990s, said officials at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Since the 1998 academic year, more than 20,000 cases of student violence each year have been reported at junior high schools across the nation. The figure is about 10 times the number reported at elementary schools and about four times the number reported at high schools.

（Mainichi Japan） March 14, 2008