Does the punishment fit the crime? After reading this, imagine how many American educators would be fired if this were the litmus test?
According to News Beyond Detroit, this principal was fired over padding his coffee purchase.
The Japanese junior high school principal lost his job and pension after cheating on his coffee purchase. He overfilled his coffee cup. Wait. He did it at least seven times.
I know. The horror.
Have any of you ever gotten self-serve drinks, drank some then topped the drink off again? And if you have, don’t be too hard on yourself. Because the Japanese already made up for all these transgressions with this one case. The 59-year-old junior high school principal lost about $135,000, based on his retirement pay estimates. Over coffee!
An observant store clerk noticed the principal committing this crime. He witnessed the man pressing the large button on the machine, when he had only paid for a regular, according to allegations by the school board. The principle validated what the clerk said, and confessed to the crime. Next, he even admitted to having ripped off multiple convenience stores. So while he is a coffee thief, he is not a liar.
Prosecutors ultimately and rightfully chose not to charge the principal for the thefts. The principal reportedly told the school board that he was “truly sorry” for his illicit activity. Ultimately, he blamed his acts on “the impulse of the moment.”
How strict is America with its educators?
Let’s compare this case with those that happen in America. Journalist Resource reported,
A junior high school teacher in Illinois was charged with battery, accused of throwing an electronic device at a student’s face during an argument.
In Florida, a first-grade teacher lost her job after campus officials said they found her drunk in class.
A Michigan high school automotive teacher was charged with criminal sexual conduct after allegedly having sex with a teenager on school grounds.
Journalists regularly cover stories about teachers behaving badly. To help, we’ve pulled together a sampling of academic research that looks at teacher misconduct broadly as well as sexual misconduct specifically.
We also included a published study on nondisclosure settlements — agreements made between teachers and school districts that limit how much information a district can share with other districts about a former employee.
One doesn’t even need the totality of these cases to understand the difference between Japan and America.
Sexual misconduct, drunkenness, and who knows what else. No seriously; who knows what else?
Records are sealed in many of these cases; probably to protect America from the horror show we would learn about other so-called educators. Here is another web site that exposes some of the things these “educators” have done, and in many cases repetitively. Believe it or not, teachers in America can actually keep their jobs with far worse repeat offenses.
How about this story where a racist was appointed Teacher of the Year:
A Lawrence county teacher was arrested and charged with several counts of having sexual contact with a student.
Lawrence County Sheriff Max Sanders says Leslie Gillespie, 44, was charged with two counts of school employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19, and one count each of rape and sodomy.
Speaking of repeat offenses, that is the exact reason why the Japanese teacher was fired.
“We reviewed past disciplinary actions and concluded that dismissal is appropriate for a repeated offense,” the school official told the outlet. The board reportedly announced removal of the former principal and rescinded his teaching license and pension Jan. 30.
And while many American scumbags hide out in “purgatory”–an area where they put teachers accused of crimes until their cases are heard–this Japanese man lost got a massive punishment for a small “crime”.
Rightfully, critics to the decision exist.
“The loss of a teaching license and retirement pay have [a] significantly larger impact than the losses the principal was responsible for,” Professor Takashi Sakata of Japan Women’s University in Tokyo told The Asahi Shimbun. Sakata told the outlet he thought it was a “disproportionately severe” verdict that just “gives the impression that they just followed the formality of precedents.”
Let’s hope the Japanese re-examine this situation. And let’s hope that the United States education system learns a lot more.
