A teacher bashed by a student while others cheered on has returned to his school, but is spending his days locked away in a reception room because other teachers are afraid of fresh trouble, the Mainichi has learned.
The 39-year-old teacher who suffered an injured neck and developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the humiliating bashing has expressed an interest in returning to the classroom. However, because officials of the Inagawa High School don't know how to handle the situation should the teacher be attacked again, he has been locked away, the teacher claimed.
"I want to give lessons, but because officials say they don't know how to handle problems should trouble break out again, they told me to stay in the reception room," said the teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.
School officials said the decision to lock the teacher away was his own. "We decided in discussions with him that he would not go before a class again," a spokesman for the school in Inagawa, Hyogo Prefecture, said. "He asked us to lock the room, saying it would make him feel more at ease."
During a school trip to the Zao ski resort in Yamagata Prefecture from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30, a second-year student bashed the teacher as other students stood around and cheered. The teacher took sick leave, but returned to work on March 1 and has been locked away in the room by himself every day since. (Mainichi Shimbun, March 17, 2004)
