Bullied Student’s Suicide Sparks Public Outcry Across Japan
20 July 2012--The suicide of a bullied student and perceived lack of response by the school, education board and police has caused public outcry in Japan, further fuelled by the unwillingness of those authorities to admit a link between the death and the bullying.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, three attempts by the boy’s father to file a complaint with police were rejected and a survey carried out by the school after the death allegedly hid evidence that teachers turned a blind eye to the continuing bullying.
In response to the public outcry, police launched a probe last week — nine months after the boy killed himself — by searching both the school and the education board’s offices, and plans to question 300 students attending the junior high school.
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