A student archery practicioner (15) who “accidentally” pointed his loaded bow at a fellow classmate (15), and then shot him in the face with an arrow, piercing his skull to a depth of 10cm and leaving him critically injured, is suing his former school for expelling him over the incident.
The original incident occurred when the student, whilst apparently performing repairs on his bow during lunch break, somehow mistakenly managed to loose an arrow into the face of the other student, who was promptly hospitalised.
The principal had this to add “Normally, we instruct students not to point these things at people, there’s really no excuse for us allowing someone to get injured. I want to ensure this never happens again”.
The shooter was expelled soon after. However, he protested, and took his case to court, suing the school administration in pursuit of his reinstatement.
Now the report of the incident changes: the shooter pointed the bow and arrow at the other student as a prank, and accidentally discharged an arrow into his head. The school then expelled him for “remarkably antisocial behaviour.”
The shooter alleges “It was an accident and so can’t be called antisocial, even my victim doesn’t want me expelled.” The principal refused comment, as legal action is pending.
We do not hear if the shooter has any plans to resume his archery hobby.
Throughout the article “archery” (アーチェリー) is referred to rather than kyuudou, so it’s not quite clear whether traditional Japanese style archery or Western style archery is meant, although it seems to make little difference.
Via Itainews. Let us hope such incidents are not set to become more common.
The handling of the case seems either too harsh (it was an accident) or too soft (it was negligent near manslaughter)?
Though if the report in the court case of him pointing it at the other student is true, that would surely put this towards the manslaughter end of the spectrum.
it’s a miracle that the guy who got shoted survived after getting a arrow in his head.
If you are an archer and you friendly fire. Consider your archery days over.
You cant accidentally shoot someone in the face with a bow. It takes a lot of force to draw a bow (either Japanese or Western). He broke rule number one Don’t point it at anything you don’t want to shoot.
he might not of been pointing it at the kid afterall it was lunch time and people walk around. he might of been checking the bow strenght and accidentally his whole face. or he was being a dick and picking on the kid and intentionally shot him or again accidentally his face.
I think the school’s decision, if based on believing it was intentional, was not too lenient. Expulsion is the worst they can do, right? The rest is up to the police.
It is a little surprising he survived.
My interpretation is that as he he was shot in the face, the arrow may have punctured his skull through the cheek or brow, taking off a few cm of brain penetration, or perhaps struck at a glancing angle.
Or, it could have hit him in the middle of the forehead, leaving the point of the arrow just in between the two hemispheres of the brain.