A third-grade elementary school boy in Sapporo was sexually assaulted several times by a junior high school boy in 2021, a Sapporo education board third-party panel said in an investigative report on Tuesday.
Due to the magnitude of the incident, the report categorized the case as a “serious incident,” legally requiring the school to report the case in detail to the mayor.
According to the report, the offending student previously went to the same elementary school as the victim, and the two were members of the same youth sports team.
In May 2021, the boy was sexually assaulted by the older male student on three occasions after the older student went on to junior high school.
Prior to the sexual assaults, the older student had been harassing the boy in other ways — by taking his hat and gloves,for instance. The boy's parents consulted the police after the sexual assaults, and authorities started looking into the case. The older student was ultimately referred to the family court for a juvenile trial.
The younger boy’s parents had reported the case to the elementary school and the junior high school, but the schools took no immediate action, such as changing the route to school so that the two students would not bump into each other. The boy was diagnosed with stress disorder in 2021.
The report pointed out that the elementary and junior high schools' response was “inadequate,” and that the city's education board “should have taken the lead in dealing with the incident, rather than leaving it to (the schools) to handle.”
The report also harshly criticized the elementary and junior high schools for failing to take adequate measures.
“One cannot help but doubt whether the schools are truly committed to upholding the law,” it said.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.