16-year-old high school student commits suicide after meeting teachers over online insults

Japan Today
Friday 08th August, 10:13 AM JST
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/16-year-old-high-school-student-commits-suicide-after-meeting-teachers-over-online-insults

HOKKAIDO — A 16-year-old high school student hanged himself in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, after being questioned by teachers over insulting messages that he had reportedly posted online about classmates, city education officials said Thursday.

According to the officials, the student was found by parents hanging in his room at home around 10 p.m. on July 20 after he was interviewed by teachers the same day about the messages. He was taken to hospital but died on Aug 4.

At a press conference Thursday, the school principal said that some students had reported the insults to the school. Teachers initially interviewed four students, including the dead boy. After the interview, one teacher contacted the boy’s mother by phone and told her that he would be suspended for 7 to 10 days.

Meanwhile, the Hokkaido Shimbum Press reported that the student left a note in which he said: “A teacher said to me, ‘You should die’ and ‘You’re an idiot.’ ‘The suspension is too much for me.’”

The school principal was quoted by the paper as saying, “According to the teachers who interviewed the student, they didn’t say anything like ‘die’ or ‘idiot.’ They said nothing inappropriate to him. I suppose the student wanted to say something in a farewell note, but you can’t be sure if the note is about us.”

High school boy kills self after being questioning by teachers for slandering student

The Mainichi Shimbun
August 7, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080807p2a00m0na004000c.html

WAKKANAI, Hokkaido -- A high school boy killed himself after being questioned by teachers over allegations that he posted a message on a mobile phone bulletin board slandering another student, local education officials said.

The Hokkaido Prefectural Board of Education denied any problem involving the way teachers questioned the boy. "There was no problem with the way teachers questioned the student," an official said.

The education board has not disclosed how the boy killed himself nor the details of a suicide note that he had left for his family.

Six teachers at Hokkaido Prefectural Wakkanai Industrial High School questioned the 16-year-old, second-year student for nearly three hours on July 20 after another student pointed out that he had posted a message slandering another student, according to board officials.

The boy went home at around 5 p.m. Later in the day, his father found the boy collapsed after he attempted to commit suicide at their home in Wakkanai. He died about two weeks later.

(Mainichi Japan) August 7, 2008