Kobe Edu Board Official, Principal Conceal Memos on Suicide-Leading Bullying

June 4, 2018

Kobe- A senior official of the Kobe municipal education board was found to have instructed the then principal of a junior high school to cover up interview-based memos proving bullying of a student who committed suicide in 2016, the board has revealed.

The memos were made on interviews with six students at the municipal school in Tarumi Ward of the western Japan city chiefly by teachers five days after the then 14-year-old girl killed herself and had been kept at the school, the board told a press conference on Sunday, citing an investigative report by lawyers.

According to the report, in March last year the school head at the time said in reply to her family's information disclosure request that the memos did not exist. The denial was made as advised by the board's chief instructor over school affairs.

The principal also prevented the memos, which specifically showed how she was bullied, from being submitted during the evidence preservation procedures initiated by Kobe District Court at the request of the bereaved family.

The board official is believed to have thought that if the memos came to light the family would have demanded information disclosure again and, thus, made related paperwork burdensome, the report pointed out.

The principal hoped to avoid a backlash from the family that was expected to follow the memos' revelation, it added, stressing that their acts should be condemned.

The board's third-party panel said in its report last year that the memos had been discarded. But later the current principal of the school found them and reported the finding to the board. The family was informed of the existence of the memos earlier this year.

At the news conference, Jun Nagata, head of the board, said, "We're very sorry." The cover-up was "unforgivable," he stressed.

"We can't help but feel deceived," the family said through a proxy. The family then demanded that facts be clarified through an impartial investigation. Jiji Press