A boy has been arrested for using a hammer to attempt to dash out the brains of the headteacher who oversaw fatal bullying and subsequent cover-up at his Shiga school, in a rare case of violent vigilante action.
The 19-year-old Saitama prefecture student travelled all the way to the Shiga prefecture school at the centre of the recent suicide bullying scandal.
Once there he located the 65-year-old principal implicated in the scandal at his office, and proceeded to attempt to beat him to death with a hammer.
The principal suffered a minor head wound from a hammer blow before the boy was subdued by other staff and handed over to police.
He has been charged with attempted murder, a charge he freely admits:
“He tried to cover up the truth about the bullying, I could never forgive this. I thought I’d try to kill him.”
Ironically enough, as a 19-year-old he will likely only be tried as a juvenile and so will probably suffer the same kind of lenient treatment as the boys responsible for hounding their schoolboy victim to his death.
Acts of vigilantism are practically unheard of in Japan (or at least those involving physical violence – anonymous campaigns of harassment are all too common), and the worst the school previously suffered was minor property damage and fake bomb threats, making attempted murder of the teachers responsible an unusually abrupt escalation.
Although some mild disapproval over the attack is evident online, many would clearly like to see the teachers get a taste of their own medicine and so have gleefully been turning the school’s own excuses back on it:
“They were just messing around!”
“An arrest is taking things too far for this sort of rough play.”
“They were just playing at pro-wrestling.”
“I believe this principal had certain family problems.”
“He’s just staging this to attract attention.”
“Whether there was an attack will need to be established through a questionnaire.”
“It is not clear that there was any connection between his wounds and this assault.”
“His attacker is a youth so we must consider his human rights.”
“Who’ll take responsibility if his assailant commits suicide?”
“I expect the principal did not expect to encounter bullying at this time of life. Perhaps he’ll know what it’s like now.”
“Bully goes on continuously day after day for months – there’s no way a single attack would make him understand.”
Amature, if your going to do a deed at least know how to do it and do it right. If not stay home and watch some porn.
Respect to the Hammer-Man! If state, and soceity doesn’t provide you with justice, then do it yourself, and set an example. The state and others will react to that.
i doubt a Texas jury would convict this young Good Citizen. if only Japan had trial by jury, he would have a chance. The baka headmaster deserved it!
to be honest, if I ever go to Japan, I would really want to meet this guy. This guy is like someone you would find as an anime character. Someone like him is a very rare kind that you can barely find on earth. If there is an Onizuka from GTO in this world, this guy would be a good candidate. Going as far as to travel all the way to that one school just to hammer some JERK who deserves it really takes some guts and dedication.
You don’t see Ishihara do that to benefit Japan.
The hero that Japan needs.
but doesn’t deserve