School for deaf checked over alleged abuses

From: Daily Yomiuri, Japan - Dec 9, 2003

Yomiuri Shimbun

Tokyo metropolitan government officials Tuesday inspected a school for children with speaking and hearing impairments and its managing corporation after a staff member was dismissed for alleged sexual abuse.

Just after 9:50 a.m., in accordance with the Child Welfare Law, 13 officials from the metropolitan government's Social Welfare Bureau entered and began inspecting Kanamachi Gakuen in Katsushika Ward and Tokyo Aiiku-en, the social welfare corporation that runs the school.

A 34-year-old male employee of the facility, whose name is being withheld, was dismissed late last month after allegedly touching the breasts of a teenage female student, as well as engaging in other forms of sexual abuse, for about 1-1/2 years until June, according to the results of an investigation.

There is also a possibility that corporal punishment was inflicted on other students under the pretext of discipline, sources said.

Copyright 2003 The Yomiuri Shimbun