11-year old Student Train 'Jumped' to Protest School Closing

[gmat]

Some of the threads about jumpers have become uncomfortable. I hesitated to post this but the rationale for the suicide was so unusual that it might be of interest. Apologies beforehand to fellow JNSers who are train drivers. From Japan Today.

 

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/11-year-old-boy-throws-himself-under-train-near-osaka

 

I've been affected by a few this past week in Tokyo.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[Bernard]

After reading the article I don't know what to say......he's only 11 how could he even think of doing this.

[cteno4]

Sad, very sad.

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Just now on Fuji TV, there is an item on this, about why and how such a young boy committed suicide. Psychologists on the show think it has a lot to do with adults (parents and teachers) not entirely understanding how children think and therefore not grasping their feelings. The boy who committed suicide appeared as a bright and already quite mature in his behaviour, so that could have also contributed in the difficulties of understanding the boy. At least, that is what the show concluded with (as far as I could understand it).

 

It's a very very sad story, but I can sort of relate to it, as I also was forced to change my first middle school because of it being closed due to low student numbers (maybe some Dutch members can recall the media rumble in 1998 and closure of the Niels Stensen College in 2003). It had a big emotional impact on me as well, but luckily, with help from friends, I got over it.

[Densha]

Yeah it's really sad, at that age I don't think I even knew what suicide was to start with. It's unfortunate that I knew three people that killed themselves and only one that died of old age.

 

In the town where I live they have started reorganizing some middle schools last year that even resulted in a secondary building of my old school being closed and a public and catholic school being combined (!) in a different building, it should be difficult for them as well. Not really comparable, but it didn't go without emotional impact was that they renovated and changed a lot of things in my middle school in the first half of my last year, it all looked so different that it felt as if it was almost a different school than when I started there.

Edited February 19, 2013 by Densha