Judul : Japan university repeatedly gave mom false info over bullying at affiliated primary school
link : Japan university repeatedly gave mom false info over bullying at affiliated primary school
Japan university repeatedly gave mom false info over bullying at affiliated primary school
MITO -- The family of a bullied former student of an elementary school affiliated with a university in east Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture was repeatedly lied to by the institution, the Mainichi Shimbun has found. The university has apologized three times, yet a mandated third-party committee never released its conclusions on the situation.
"Repeated false explanations and excuses with no end in sight," the girl's mother said, unable to hide her distrust. What went wrong at the locally renowned national school?
The elementary school affiliated with Ibaraki University College of Education apparently provided false explanations on multiple occasions to the family of the girl, who was severely bullied there in 2021. The girl chose not to advance within the school, and instead went on to a different junior high.
According to the mother, her daughter, then a fourth grader, was persistently followed and verbally abused by classmates around April 2021, resulting in insomnia and stomach pain that led to her refusing to attend school from that June.
In January 2023, when the girl was in the fifth grade, the mother requested a third-party committee be formed to investigate. In response, the school's principal sent a letter that included the phrases, "The situation is still in the stage of providing mental care, so there is no need for a third-party committee investigation," and, "If you remain dissatisfied, we will refer the matter to our legal counsel."
Reading the letter, the mother felt threatened. "It terrified and disappointed me that the school was willing to ignore the law and intimidate parents so brazenly," she said.
When the mother sought clarification through her lawyer in March 2023, Ibaraki University conceded that it had not conducted a legally mandated investigation and acknowledged that, among other things, it only reported the case to the education ministry in February 2023 as "serious situations" under the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying.
Initially, the elementary school explained to the mother that it had reported the bullying to the education ministry in May 2022, but in fact, it had simply included the case in a numerical response to a statistics survey related to bullying. After the Mainichi Shimbun reported on the issue on April 7, 2023, President Hiroyuki Ota issued the university's first apology and announced the creation of a third-party committee on the same day.
"I wanted to know how the school was dealing with my daughter, when she refused to go to school," the mother said. Based on such concerns, she asked for an explanation from the university about how it had answered the government survey, but it refused, saying that would be "using the data for an unintended purpose."
In reality, the university falsely indicated in the survey that it had already investigated the case and that its investigative body consisted solely of third parties. Without informing the mother, the university quietly revised its response to the education ministry in June 2024. Last August, the university announced the correction in the president's name, and in September issued a second apology to the parent.
The situation did not end there. The institution even provided the mother with a nonfactual report about when it noticed its inaccurate response to the ministry. The university told the mother it had found the mistake the day after the president's first statement, and claimed it had not deliberately withheld information by omitting mention of the incorrect response.
However, internal documents revealed that teachers at the school had noticed the survey answers were incorrect as of January to February 2023. When the third-party committee demanded a review, the university sent the mother a new letter under the president's name in September 2024, completely changing its prior explanation. The university admitted it had realized the error at the school between January and February 2023 and that university staff had verified it even before the president's statement, but the information had not been communicated up to the president. A third apology was issued in this document.
The mother's legal representative Takeshi Matsui stressed, "Even if the president learned of the issue only after the statement, that itself is problematic. The National University Corporation Act defines the president as the legal representative of the university and responsible for overseeing all operations. The president had a duty to exercise authority, understand the issue and address it appropriately."
A sudden meeting, daughter stops attending school once more
President Ota directly spoke with the mother and daughter once, two years after the bullying was first raised. By then, the girl was in sixth grade and, with learning support, had returned to school. One morning in June, as the mother accompanied her daughter to school, she was suddenly informed by a university staff member that the president was on site and led them to the principal's office. Awaiting them, Ota apologized and said, "Would you please stay a while and talk?"
The girl appeared confused and frightened. Her mother refused, citing classes. The encounter unsettled the student and she again experienced deteriorating health, mostly unable to attend school from then through summer vacation.
Why was such a meeting arranged so abruptly? The mother had an idea why.
Roughly two months earlier, in April 2023, news sites ran footage of the Ota confronted by reporters. He responded to them by saying, "I think there's a step-by-step process (for offering an apology)," and continued, "The most important thing is the students' hearts. We must create an environment conducive to learning."
The mother reflected, "I had told them my daughter was still under hospital care and not in good physical or mental health, but they suddenly brought us into that meeting without even consulting our lawyer. It was extremely inconsiderate and unacceptable."
That autumn, the mother informed the school her daughter would attend a different junior high, relaying that the girl couldn't feel at ease about school. Now, over a year since her graduation, the mother continues to harbor deep doubts about President Ota's actions.
(Japanese original by Hitomi Saito, Mito Bureau, and Mitsumasa Takemoto, Former Mito Bureau Chief)
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