Soccer coach who made kids run nude laps commits suicide
OSAKA -- A public junior high school's controversial soccer coach who was punished last year for making some of his team strip off and run laps in the nude for missing practice penalties committed suicide on Thursday, police said.
The 48-year-old teacher threw himself in front of a Nankai Takano Line train in Osaka's Sumiyoshi-ku early on Thursday morning.
He had apparently been struggling over relations with staff at the school in Osaka where he had worked, as well as felt troubled at dealing with students' parents, police said.
Police said the teacher took the day off work on Wednesday and could not be found early Thursday morning before he jumped in front of the train.
Police said that during the school soccer team's summer camp in 2005, the coach ordered several junior high schoolboy players to strip off and run laps of their ground while naked as punishment for missing penalties during practice.
The case became public last year and the Osaka Municipal Board of Education suspended the teacher for two months.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080117p2a00m0sp031000c.html
