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Japanese School apologizes for clerical error that led to student’s suicide

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Pretty popular news story atm.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...ologizes-clerical-error-led-students-suicide/

HIROSHIMA – The principal of a junior high school in Hiroshima Prefecture apologized Wednesday after a boy killed himself over an incident stemming from a clerical mistake.

The school last year refused to support the graduating student’s high school entrance application because its records wrongly showed that he had a petty theft record.

The 15-year-old killed himself on Dec. 8 after the school informed his parents that it would not issue a personal recommendation to his chosen high school because his student file stated he had been caught shoplifting during his first year at the school.

The school later investigated the matter. It found that the allegation was false.

The boy had hoped to take a private high school’s entrance examination, but applicants were accepted for the exam only upon receipt of a recommendation from their junior high school.

Principal Hiroshi Sakamoto appeared before a school assembly and apologized for the error and for lying about the reason for the boy’s death.

Despite knowing the boy had committed suicide, a day after his death the school falsely stated that he had suffered acute heart failure.

A review of the case of the boy’s death found that a teacher who entered the shoplifting charge into the school’s records had been informed of it verbally by another faculty member. The actual culprit was a different student, but the record was attached to the name of the boy who later killed himself.

The administrative mistake was noticed during an October 2013 meeting at the school, located in the town of Fuchu, shortly after the theft. The faculty members who attended the meeting made the necessary corrections in the documents they had, but the changes were not reflected in the school’s computer system.

Sakamoto told reporters Tuesday that the school had no one in charge of vetting computer data at the time.
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From the headline I was ready to say 'It's right to apologise for the clerical mistake but it was an innocent error'... then I read that they purposefully misrepresented the cause of death. It is because of Japanese society's attitude towards suicide that it is so common compared to other developed nations, and when authorities ignore or outright lie about it they are perpetuating that stigma, that taboo, that sweeping under the carpet of a huge issue which could be improved if only people could speak openly and frankly about it.
 
Makes you really wonder how much pressure this kid was under from his parents. I see outrageously hgih strung students all the time and it always boils down to overbearing parents who insist on living through their children and placing absolutely unrealistic expectations on their children. Its straight up emotional abuse and destroys these kids self esteem. Its truly heartbreaking.
 
RexNovis said:
Makes you really wonder how much pressure this kid was under from his parents. I see outrageously hgih strung students all the time and it always boils down to overbearing parents who insist on living through their children and placing absolutely unrealistic expectations on their children. Its straight up emotional abuse and destroys these kids self esteem. Its truly heartbreaking.
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In my experience parents in Japan aren't especially strict or unreasonable when it comes to putting pressure on their kids, it is more society and the education/ work system. To get a good job, you need to graduate from a respected university (doesn't really matter what you study there or how hard you study). To get into a a good university, you need to pass their entrance examination and beat thousands of other hopefuls. To do that, you can't simply work hard at school, you need to go to at least one after-school programme (cram school). You will probably have to give up some of your interests like sport or music in high school to focus on raising your test scores. And if you fail to get into your college of choice, you may decide to take a year out and reapply, going to a school specifically for students who were not accepted the first time and which focuses on mock examinations all day every day. In that case you become a 'Ronin' and have another stigma to deal with.

So yeah, the system is geared towards placing huge stress on young people, who end up prepared to face exams which mostly test for rote knowledge and unprepared to enter society.
 
This could perfectly pass as a plot from some random episode of Great Teacher Onizuka

That Anime really made me think that japanese education isn't as perfect as one could think
 
In the the world of professionals (in all vocations) the game of telephone often ends with someone getting fucked over. Doing due diligence is had; simply sweeping people aside is easy.
 
Wow, there is a lot things that are wrong with this story, chief among them that a student would commit suicide over this. Real shame that the pressure/stress was strong enough to push the student to do this.
 
Bad mistake on the school's part but holy shit...social/academic stress in Japan and other Asian nations is insane...RIP dude :-/
 
Jesus. I was reclined and reading that title made me sit up. I can't believe that sentence came to exist. Incredibly tragic.
 
Busaiku said:
I could've forgiven them for the error, but to lie about his death is ridiculous.
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I'm not so sure about that. I don't think it's a good idea to tell students that one of their peers committed suicide. Reports of suicides often lead to copycats, which is why it is often discouraged to cover them in the media. Of course now when someone is young and the cause of death is not reported, people will assume suicide.
 
I'm surprised people are okay with the "error" but draw the line at lying to students about the suicide. I'm not okay with the error at all because it wasn't the error that drove him to suicide to begin with - it was the denial of a recommendation. The clerical error only resulted in the black mark on his record, when he contested it with the school, how is it that no one immediately realized it could be a human error and checked up on it? I mean, they eventually managed to, after he died, and they actually had pressure to right? The documents are there. This should have been a very normal appeal process where you go "hey that's not right" and they check and come back a week later with "oh sorry, you're right, here's your recommendation". Instead it wasn't. That's not a clerical error, that's negligence. Schools are not just administrative bodies, they have to be invested in and responsible for every student under their care.
 
Bitch move with the cover up. Is there no system set up for appeals that lead to investigations? If so, there should be.

RIP
 
That is tragic. I was going to feel bad for the school due to the error but then I read they covered it up. What a shady move.
 
duckroll said:
I'm surprised people are okay with the "error" but draw the line at lying to students about the suicide. I'm not okay with the error at all because it wasn't the error that drove him to suicide to begin with - it was the denial of a recommendation. The clerical error only resulted in the black mark on his record, when he contested it with the school, how is it that no one immediately realized it could be a human error and checked up on it? I mean, they eventually managed to, after he died, and they actually had pressure to right? The documents are there. This should have been a very normal appeal process where you go "hey that's not right" and they check and come back a week later with "oh sorry, you're right, here's your recommendation". Instead it wasn't. That's not a clerical error, that's negligence. Schools are not just administrative bodies, they have to be invested in and responsible for every student under their care.
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Just from this article, I got the impression that the student just immediately committed suicide after the rejection without appealing or waiting for confirmation.
 
tokkun said:
I'm not so sure about that. I don't think it's a good idea to tell students that one of their peers committed suicide. Reports of suicides often lead to copycats, which is why it is often discouraged to cover them in the media. Of course now when someone is young and the cause of death is not reported, people will assume suicide.
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Huh. When a student at my high school committed suicide the school dedicated a room for people who were affected to talk with a counselor. The whole day became a kind of "suicide awareness day," and teachers talked about the importance of getting help and resources that students could use if they suffered from depression. I realize that that kind of thing probably wouldn't fly in Japan, but I think it's a much healthier way of dealing with an incident like this.
 
The real crime here is that the Japanese education system is so fucked that someone would feel so much pressure to get into a particular high school that they would commit suicide over not getting in.

I can forgive a clerical error, and I can forgive not writing a letter of recommendation if your records show that the kid committed a crime.

But when the entire culture places so much pressure on kids to get into specific schools at such an early age? I can't forgive that.

The sad thing is that it doesn't even start at the high school level. What Kindergarten you go to determines what middle school you can go to, and what middle school you go to determines what high school you can go to, which determines what college you can go to. They're feeling this shit from Kindergarten.

You have to take middle school, high school, and college entrance exams for fuck's sake.
 
You really have to take a look at your own society when there is a system that causes kids to feel that hopeless at that young of an age.
 
Blah blah blah cultural relativism, but Japanese culture sucks.

Edit: Sorry that's a bad post. All cultures have negative aspects but there's just things about Japanese culture that are causing huge issues (huge suicide rate, low birth rate) with no evident effort to change those attitudes that cause those things.
 
Scrooge McDuck said:
Just from this article, I got the impression that the student just immediately committed suicide after the rejection without appealing or waiting for confirmation.
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Reading it again, there seems to have been a meeting between the parents and school, but he killed himself before that instead. :(
 
I'm sorry but if I'm that kids father I'm waiting for that principle by his car after work.

After his recovery he'll never make those mistakes again if he chose to stay as a principal.

Edit: read threw it again. I'll also be waiting for the teacher responsible for putting that in my kids file without verifying if my kid really committed a crime or not.
 
Errors happen. Obviously there should be a review... but errors will always happen.

How about fixing the culture of high stakes stress that would cause someone to commit suicide over failing to enter a school? That's the bigger evil than a data entry fail.
 
thehypocrite said:
Institutional Failure that cause 1 kid to suicide is unacceptable. They should be held accountable.
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It is a terrible situation and the school should be blamed for its mistake and inability to fix it. With that said I think it is a bit much to directly blame them for the suicide as that is an extreme reaction to what happened.
Slso, for those who mention the high suicide rate in Japan ... it is much higher in South Korea than in Japan.
 
kmfdmpig said:
Slso, for those who mention the high suicide rate in Japan ... it is much higher in South Korea than in Japan.
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While that is true, and I assume is true also among young people, that alone doesn't tell us anything. Do Koreans face similar stresses, such as pressure to perform well academically? Is their society also failing to adequately address their high suicide rate through education and treatment? I would be surprised if the answer wasn't 'yes' to both questions.
 
cpp_is_king said:
But when the entire culture places so much pressure on kids to get into specific schools at such an early age? I can't forgive that.
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BocoDragon said:
How about fixing the culture of high stakes stress that would cause someone to commit suicide over failing to enter a school? That's the bigger evil than a data entry fail.
Click to expand...

Cheesecakebobby said:
So yeah, the system is geared towards placing huge stress on young people, who end up prepared to face exams which mostly test for rote knowledge and unprepared to enter society.
Click to expand...

Sure, but do they learn how Socrates died? Worth it
 
Jintor said:
I don't know where anyone gets the idea that japanese education is perfect, lol
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I see, you hadn't much interactions with Weaboos then! :p

@ Topic: this is extremely horrible, and is another proof of how fucked up Japanese society is in regards to education.
 
Just like china they really need to stop treating social, living matters as life and death so that people won't get so upset over them. This is the real issue here. And yes it sucks he was blanrd. Also had a girl do this at a school I worked at. Teachers told me she had family issues, students told me she was pregnant. Definitely a suicide issue for many in Asia.

Another time we were put of our office with a man holding his one year old with him on top of a building
 
Holy shit that's fucked up. Especially how the record ended up there: Just bloody word of mouth, no fact checking. AND THEN LYING ABOUT HOW HE DIED?

Holy fuckaroo.
 
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