3 more students scrawled on world heritage cathedral in Italy

Thursday 26th June, 06:42 AM JST

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Bungleer at 12:53 PM JST - 26th June

What I found most laughable about the whole incident was that in another article they said that the school warned the pupils.

What? Is that it? They should be expelled from school for a few months or so. How could they in their limited-mindedness ever learn, if there's no real punishment involved?
terebiko at 12:56 PM JST - 26th June

I wonder how many other students are now sweating bullets, hoping that their graffiti isn't discovered. LOL!

The boys and girls in these cases have probably learned their lesson. I'm sure that the girls have, because on one of the wide shows the graffiti was not blurred out, and their names were plain as day. They probably received a number of phone calls.

Though not the same, it does bring to mind an old practice here in Japan. Many people in Japan used to leave their family name at temples or shrines they visited on pilgrimages. At some locations you can still see them.

From onmarkproductions.com/html/pilgrimages-pilgrims-japan.html

PILGRIM NAME LABELS / STICKERS Senjya Fuda (千社札) Name stickers that pilgrims paste or stick on the temple gate or shrine gate to prove that they visited that location. In modern times, most pilgrimage sites no longer allow this, primarily as a means for protecting the aging temple/shrine structures. Instead, pilgrims now offer osame-fuda prayer slips.
wilbur at 01:02 PM JST - 26th June

i'd like to carve my initials in these losers faces
VS at 01:14 PM JST - 26th June

I would tie them up and hang them from a tree for three days. No, I would take away their most prized possession, their computer/tv games and smash it with a sledge hammer. then they'll understand what it means to treasure something.

The parents did a hell of a job raising these kids.
VS at 01:21 PM JST - 26th June

Why sue the parents? The university sponsored the trip and should have provided adequate supervision, they should be financially liable for damages.

If you notice, they are college age students, not 10 year old children who need "supervision". These students should be directly held liable but they dont have any money. It's the parents fault for not teaching them that it's a no-no to write on a cathedral.
Puff_the_Magic at 02:06 PM JST - 26th June

They all need to have "Io ho visitato la Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore" tattooed on their foreheads.
paolo27th at 02:38 PM JST - 26th June

This stuff is pretty common in Italy. Alot of heritage sites are plastered with dumb scrawlings (at my time the favourite being the name of your boyfriend or girlfriend followed by T.V.B. meaning I love you or T.V.T.B. as in I love you very much). The problem is that these places attract lots of school trips and students as we know are dumb. Of course only Japanese students are dumb enough to write their own and their school's full names. Now if every Japanes person I met didn't feel the need to apologise to me for these incidents...
Hughgarse at 02:54 PM JST - 26th June

The university plans to give disciplinary measures to the three, the officials said

Plans to?? they should be suspended...
nigelboy at 03:06 PM JST - 26th June

The problem is that these places attract lots of school trips and students as we know are dumb. Of course only Japanese students are dumb enough to write their own and their school's full names

Nah. I've seen a lot of graffitti with the names of Universities along with fraternity names and so on. It's just that the other tourists don't bother taking photos of it and sending it to the University.
dennis0bauer at 03:36 PM JST - 26th June

japanese culture all the way
shibalhangook at 05:24 PM JST - 26th June

I am actually sort of pleasantly surprised to know that Japanese are actually starting to grow some balls and start taking after tourists from other countries who vandalize and write graffiti on national treasure sites far more than anyone from Japan.

The Japanese could learn from Koreans who are notorious for making sure that people in every country they visit are indoctrinated in the ridiculous, but standard belief held by every Korean citizen regarding their supposed "superiority" over any other Nation. I remember how it was a very big News Item last year when the German government complained to Korea over the thousands of messages in hangul and English scribbled by Koreans on the Berlin Wall collected over the years which read "Dokdo is Korea's Land" and "Korea is the ruler of Asia". Too bad they didn't force all of the idiots to fly from Korea to Germany to clean up the garbage they made. Would have taught them a lesson.
presto345 at 07:47 PM JST - 26th June

The parents did a hell of a job raising these kids.

I keep seeing this kind of comment. No doubt from people whose parents did do a great job, and who were lucky too not to have strayed. The thing is you can't blame the parents for all the stupid things kids do. Society as a whole is to blame. Bringing up children is everyone's responsibility. Graffiti and leaving marks on public or private property is a cancer difficult to cure. Famous sights should perhaps erect slabs or walls specifically for people who have this strong, irresistible urge to carve their names for posterity.
VoXman at 09:46 PM JST - 26th June

shibalhangook

Totally agree! Do they teach this ridiculous belief in school or what? I've had Koreans tell me straight faced that S. Korea is richer than the US and Japan combined.
nandakandamanda at 10:09 PM JST - 26th June

Until the Japanese individual learns how to be able to graduate from the group, the peer group is everything. At home and at school adults are just an annoying dry drone in the distance. Loyalty is to the group, and to the here and now. Old buildings, history mean little to many, either in Japan or abroad. You could probably walk on Tatami mats in your shoes and it might not shock them. Might even elicit a laugh...

I doubt that they would have 'scrawled' their names. I imagine that they would have written them quite neatly, as they expressed self-satisfied proof of their existence. Ah, Japan! The land of eternal youth?
hennagaijin005 at 12:06 PM JST - 27th June

Shayouzoku, what is the difference if Americans or Europeans pose in front of the Buddha when we see JAPANESE do it as well? I'd like to know why it's ok for Japanese but not for anyone else. It seems that what you are saying.

That being said, there's a huge difference between defacing a place with writing and doing something culturally retarded such as photographing oneself in front of a place of worship. Funny though, I've travelled all throughout Southern Japan and no one seems to have a problem with photographs, to include your own countrymen. Human beings, no matter where they are from, should learn some social responsibility. It's not just stupid Americans or Europeans or pompous Koreans...it's all of us.