If horrendous bullying is repeated and the victim ends up committing suicide, the perpetrators can be found liable and ordered to pay compensation -- even if they are junior high school students. At a time when cases of bullying continue unabated, this court ruling must be taken as a warning to bullies.
In 2011, a second-year student at an Otsu municipal junior high school killed himself. The boy's parents filed a lawsuit demanding damages because they believed bullying had been the cause of his suicide. In its ruling on this case, the Otsu District Court has ordered two of the boy's former classmates to pay compensation.
The court acknowledged the bullying had made the student feel "isolated, worthless, powerless and desperate." The court went as far as to say, "It could generally be predicted that a person under these psychological circumstances would commit suicide."
In past lawsuits claiming damages due to bullying, many cases ended up not recognizing a causal relationship between the bullying and the suicide. The Otsu court's ruling accepted there was a causal relationship in this case, regardless of whether the perpetrators could have predicted the victim might take his own life.
This can be described as an unprecedented ruling that lowered the hurdles to plaintiffs proving their cases.
Based on about 500 pieces of evidence, including police investigation records and a report by a third-party investigation committee established by the city government, the court accepted there had been 26 instances of bullying.
The bullies sat astride the victim, choked him and punched his face. They scribbled on his face. They ripped up his textbooks. They tried to make him eat dead bees. The court seriously considered the impact of the accumulation of such acts of bullying.
The boy's former classmates argued that their actions "had been intended as pranks." The court understandably rejected their argument, saying, "This went beyond the bounds of mere mischief."
Despite law, deaths continue
The Otsu municipal board of education's handling of the student's suicide also has been criticized.
Despite gleaning information about the bullying from a survey conducted on every student at the school, the board closed its investigation of the incident after three weeks. The police later launched an investigation, and the third-party committee set up by the city concluded the bullying was a factor in the boy's suicide.
The law on promoting measures to prevent bullying was enacted in response to the student's death.
Cases in which bullying causes major harm to a child's life, mind or body, or leads to long-term truancy, are defined as "serious situations," and boards of education and schools are required to establish investigative bodies to look into them.
There are only limited ways for the victim's side to find out what had happened at school. There have been cases in which bereaved family members distrusted the conclusion reached by an investigative committee and demanded a reinvestigation. Entities involved in this process must be aware of the importance of conducting exhaustive investigations.
There has been no end to elementary, junior high and high school students committing suicide due to bullying, even after the anti-bullying law was enacted in 2013. Forty-three students killed themselves during a five-year period. If adults around children notice any unusual changes, they should step in to nip problems in the bud. Children must be taught that bullying could lead to the loss of life. People on the front lines of education and in communities must step up their efforts against bullying.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 22, 2019)
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