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Kamimura Gakuen H.S. Girls' Head Coach Suspended for Corporal Punishment Against Team Members

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/news/140131/crm14013100280001-n1.htm

translated by Brett Larner

In response to questioning on Jan. 30, administration officials from National High School Girls Ekiden Championships regular Kamimura Gakuen H.S. of Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima, admitted that the male head coach of its girls' ekiden team had performed corporal punishment against first-year team members.  Confirming the factual basis of the situation, the school administration apologized to parents and placed the head coach under indefinite suspension.

According to the administration, during a team training camp last August the head coach told a female student, "You need stronger abs," before punching her in the stomach hard twice with his fist.  Earlier this month he told a girl on the team, "Try harder," as he pinched her cheeks.  Administration officials also said that another girl stopped coming to the school this month after the coach told her, "If you keep up like this you might lose your scholarship."

Principal Ryo Ozono commented, "I don't think he was aware that what he was doing constituted corporal punishment, but nevertheless what took place should not have happened."  Kamimura Gakuen H.S. represented Kagoshima prefecture at December's National High School Girls Ekiden Championships.

Translator's note: The Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls' ekiden team is coached by Tetsuzo Arikawa.  As with last year's corporal punishment scandal at Toyokawa Kogyo H.S., the Japanese media do not name the head coach despite that information being publicly and readily available on the school's own website and elsewhere.

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