I used to write a lot about the bad teachers in the new here in Japan. They were all shapes of wacky, evil, and embarrassing, but it got pretty depressing for me so I stopped. I think most teachers have good intentions (even if I don’t think many have been properly trained in education, teaching methods, and educational psychology).
I couldn’t let this one pass, though.
The 51 year old male advisor of the art club at Akita Prefectural Odate High School forced an 18 year old female member of the club to wear a maid uniform. He also let other members of the club take pictures of her.
He forced her by threatening to withhold her Japanese language class credits (thus preventing her from graduating).
When the student told office staff at the school what had happened, the teacher was reprimanded and went to the girl’s home with the school’s vice principal to apologize. The pictures were also reportedly deleted.
He has been relieved of duty as the advisor of the club but returned to his teaching duties after apologizing in front of the entire student body. He later that he thought the girl would take it as a joke.
My commentary will be pretty brief here…
HE’S STILL TEACHING!!
The school can argue that he didn’t touch the girl or anything like that, but to embarrass her in front of her classmates is horrible. This is a clear case of harassment. He used his power over her school credits to threaten her into a sexual or otherwise embarrassing situation against her will.
And he’s still teaching… the articles I’ve seen didn’t say, but I assume he is also still teaching the girl in question, as are other senior members of the club.
Since the incident happened in late September the girl has already graduated… a convenient time for the school to own up to what’s happened. It’s a prefectural school as well so it would also be convenient to just transfer the teacher to another school in Akita where nobody knows about this incident. He can start fresh with a new club, although he’ll probably have to buy a new maid uniform with the club’s funds.
If I sound a little jaded, I apologize but I’ve seen some pretty horrid things that resulted in nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a transfer to a school across town.
Holy mother of God!!! That is the story of the year so far by miles, and the fact that he’s still teaching is just the icing on the cake. But as long as he did a required 35 degree bow for about 3 seconds then everything is alright and can continue. Interesting the timing of these stories, just like the DPJ guy being arrested at just the time when LDP popularity in Japan is going to drop into single figures. If I was the sceptical type, I might think that’s not a complete coincidence 😉
In the US when one party is outed for something at a convenient time, there are always accusations that the party in power was going out of its way to find something.
This story has been in mainstream news, but as I wrote the girl has since graduated and the teacher will probably transferred to a new life. Sometimes they also take the early retirement option, but I’m not sure if he’s old enough yet.
This story reminds me of a story some years ago about a teacher during a school trip going into a room full of girls and feeling them all up, then falling asleep in the hallway. He was forgiven after apologizing, because… after all… he had a great excuse for what he did. He was drunk!
This story is being reported by Japan Today now. Nice to see you’re ahead of the game!
Hey Dave, thanks for the link too. I’m looking forward to your coverage of the elections! (and looking forward to the elections themselves).
One thing I don’t get about this story is why it’s coming out in the news at all. It happened and was “resolved” in September. Maybe the girl or a clubmate leaked it when they realized the teacher was getting off. Schools like to hide this kind of thing to protect their reputations.