Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Good God...what happened, Kenji?
This sentence is from Japanese newspaper.
An 11-year-old girl taken into custody for allegedly killing a female classmate with a box cutter was quoted by police sources Friday as saying she did so because the classmate wrote on an Internet bulletin board that the girl was "prissy."
According to the police, Satomi Mitarai wrote on a bulletin board on her Web site late last month that the girl was prissy. The girl deleted the message, but Mitarai posted a similar one soon later.
To make changes to messages on a Web site, the girl would have needed a password. The girl told investigators that she did not like the messages so she decided to kill Mitarai.
The two girls registered with a service that enables users to create a Web site easily, and they both had their own sites on which each set up a bulletin board.
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Admirer of 'Battle Royale'
The girl wrote and published on her Web site a story similar to "Battle Royale," a novel by Koshun Takami about middle school students who battle and kill each other.
She launched the Web site in January and started posting in late February sections from her story, which she completed this month.
"Battle Royale" is about 42 middle school students taken to an uninhabited island by the government to battle against each other for their own survival.
The girl's story was titled
"Battle Royale--Sasayaki" and is similar to the original, although characters' names are different. The main character is a third-grade middle school student named Maya, who battles with 15 classmates with Japanese swords and machine guns. In the end, Maya wins to become the only student who survives the battle.
On Feb. 24, she announced on her Web site that she was going to write her own version of "Battle Royale." She also asked those who visited her site to post comments on it.
She also posted poems and messages about her classmates.
In one such post, she said she was annoyed with her class and that her classmates were "vulgar, rude, arrogant and selfish losers."
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Rehabilitation planned
The Nagasaki prefectural child consultation center in Sasebo has requested that the girl be sent to a child rehabilitation facility that can keep her isolated from other children, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Friday.
The center made the request when the girl, who had been held by Nagasaki prefectural police, was referred to Nagasaki Family Court's Sasebo branch, saying being admitted to such a facility would be an "appropriate" action.
The child consultation center in Nagasaki received a report Tuesday from prefectural police containing details of the case and convened a meeting Wednesday to discuss what rehabilitation the girl should receive.
Based on the police report and talks with the girl and her parents, the center decided to refer the case to the Sasebo branch. If it is decided in family court that she should be sent to a facility, the center will choose the facility.
"Bearing in mind the seriousness of this case, we decided that she needed individual attention rather than social interaction at this point," said Masanori Nakamura, head of the center.
There are 58 so-called self-reliance facilities for children nationwide. Two of the state-run facilities are equipped with secured private rooms, but the only one that accommodates girls is located in Ujiiemachi, Tochigi Prefecture.
A Nagasaki child consultation center requested similar treatment when it referred a 12-year-old boy who abducted and killed a 4-year-old child in Nagasaki in July to the family court.
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Ministry establishes project team
Education, Science and Technology Minister Takeo Kawamura announced Friday that the ministry had set up a project team to investigate the problematic behavior of young students.
The team will analyze the details and possible causes behind the Sasebo case and draw up a series of measures by the beginning of the school summer holidays to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
The team is expected to discuss how to educate children on the preciousness of human life, create a secure school environment and teach morals and manners in the information society, among other measures.
Early next week, the team will dispatch officials to Sasebo to gather information on the case.
"Primary school students are surrounded by so many influences, including the Internet and movies," Kawamura said at a press conference Friday. "We must ensure that children understand at a more profound level the importance of human life."