After someone wrote a comment on her blog telling her to die, a high school girl hanged herself. Although this is most probably another case of bullying that also took place in school as well, the school will deny that any bullying took place in order to avoid the wrath of the bereaved’s lawyers and the Ministry of Education. I’m sure some more information will come out in the next few days including a straight up assertion from the school that they “completed an investigation showing no evidence of bullying”.
If the schools would just be open and honest about this kind of thing, I’m not saying the problem would go away, but if that openness just saved a couple of kids a year it would be worth it! Take responsibility for the failure to see the signs, for allowing kids to have the opportunity and mindset to do this kind of thing for each other, and for not giving the victimized kids the kind of support and strength they need in order to see that they don’t have to do what the bullies want them to. In fact, almost everybody wants them to live!
Here’s the story in Japanese without much detail yet. “Suicide: In Suicide Note A First Year High School Girl Says ‘DIE’ Was Written On Her Personal Blog”
I’ll try to follow up when I hear more.
Technoratiのタグ suicide in japan