A teacher who savagely beat a student for not being sufficiently respectful when apologising to him has received a temporary pay cut.
The incident unfolded at a Yokohama middle school, where a 57-year-old teacher was overseeing his class as they cleaned their classroom (Japanese schools force children to clean their schools as it supposedly has educational value), and became dissatisfied with how a male student was using a rag.
He warned the boy, who impudently replied “sorry” without using the proper honorifics or polite form (“gomen ne”). Enraged, the teacher exploded, throwing the child to the ground and punching him three times in the face, and then proceeding to kick him repeatedly in the face and stomach.
After returning home the boy’s parents immediately took him to hospital, where he was diagnosised with moderate facial injuries.
The teacher explains that “I thought he was making fun of me, and I snapped. It was inexcusable.”
For assaulting the boy, his school has imposed the draconian punishment of a 10% pay cut for 3 months. He apparently will not face criminal charges.
As usual, crimes which would see normal people sent to prison only seem to result in an insincere apology from Japanese teachers – little wonder children in such environments find themselves driven to suicide without teachers ever bothering to come to their aid.
That teacher is living the dream. How many times have we had a smart-ass teenager mouth off and all you wanted was to beat the ever living sh*t out of them and teach them some manners. I know I have. Is the teacher’s behavior inexcusable? Absolutely. However, I imagine we don’t have the whole story and I have a feeling there’s a good chance this kid was deliberately stirring up trouble for a while. This kind of behavior doesn’t just manifest without some sort of build up (unless the teacher has a history of abusing children). I’m sure it was an accumulation of experiences that ultimately lead to this teacher having enough of a jerk-ass kid and finally beat the snot out of him. And on the surface, the school administers discipline in the way of a pay cut but behind the scenes, the other faculty members are probably giving him high-fives for actually doing what they all wished they had the balls to do. Not all heroes wear capes.
I wonder how many times you were a smartass teenager mouthing off some completely respectable adult and deserved a good punch in the mouth
LOL pay cut. Teaching in japan amireight?
The f♥♥k? He beats up a student just because he said sorry in a non-formal way? That’s just ridiculous man. I would’ve understood if the student said something like “Go f♥♥k yourself” or if he didn’t say anything at all.
As a teacher myself I can not put in words how much I loathe these old farts that think they deserve the highest respect for the sole reason of having been born before pretty much everyone else in that school when all they do is poke their nose in class and loiter about in the teacher’s lounge.
A teacher earns the student’s respect, not demand it.
“Eye for an eye” that would be good law to any country.
10% pay cut for 3 months?
Ehh. That’s not a very harsh punishment.
It should be for 6 months at least.