Tokyo gov't ordered to compensate teachers for intervening in sex education class

Friday 13th March, 06:29 AM JST

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Molenir at 08:46 AM JST - 13th March

Probably using dolls to demonstrate graphically the difference between good and bad touches to the mentally handicapped.
ANOTSUSAGAMI at 08:48 AM JST - 13th March

Sigh...Part of the story missing again. It is VERY important to note that the teachers developed the lessons under the supervision and help of the parents, and only taught what the parents of the children approved. That's the reason the court ruled in thier favor.
mikihouse at 09:37 AM JST - 13th March

we have jusrassic education system in Japan. You can't teach sex education in Japan school that's why teen pregnancy, abortion, HIV and other STD is on the rise, not to mention infanticide, rape and so on. The mentally challenged students are being raped, molested, taken advantage of and so the teachers and parents have to educate these kids in a cerain way they can comprehend. The response? SUE these teachers for meddling with Jurassic Japan...shame
rick0909 at 10:26 AM JST - 13th March

mikihouse, You misread the article. The teachers were the one who sued the government.
Disillusioned at 10:45 AM JST - 13th March

The teachers were the one who sued the government.

True, but only after they were reprimanded for 'extreme' sex eduction classes with a doll. The lack of details in this article create a pretty disturbing image of what could have been 'extreme'. The article also doesn't state how old the students were. One would hope they were at least high school seniors although, for handicapped kids this is probably still too young. I find this whole scenario disturbing.
LFRAgain at 10:47 AM JST - 13th March

Bravo to the Tokyo District Court!

It isn't frequent enough, but every once in a while, the legal system here offers a glimmer of sensibility.

mikihouse - Yes, I think you may have misread the article.

" . . . we have Jurassic education system in Japan."

When it comes to sex education in particular, I couldn't agree more.

I had the misfortune of sitting in on a junior high sex ed class for first-year students once about three years ago. On that particular day, the students were being taught the anatomical features of the sex organs and how the part of both genders complimented one another for reproduction. The teacher? A 21-year old college student at the school for two weeks as part of her in-class internship. In front of 10 senior teachers acting as observers to give the intern a pass or fail on her lesson plan, this young woman was nervous, embarrassed, and stuttered and stammered her way through about 30 minutes of loosely connected, overly vague, abstract explanations of the human reproductive system, complete with an overhead projection and a laser pointer.

After she essentially convinced the students that the human sexual reproductive system being taught in class that day had virtually nothing to do with really people, the male P.E. teacher spent the last 20 minutes of class talking about nocturnal emissions and sudden, inexplicable erections for the boys. And that was it. Sex Ed was finished for the term.

Nothing about menstruation (although the female teachers had to hold a special meeting in the gymnasium with just the female students to explain how to properly use and dispose of sanitary napkins). Nothing about hormones and the havoc they wreak on one’s ability to exercise good judgment. Nothing in detail about STDs, what they are, and how they’re transmitted. Just a simple, “They exist. Be careful,” with the kids no doubt baffled as to what exactly they had to be careful of.

That was Sex Ed three years ago in my neighborhood. Granted, I live in a relatively conservative, rural part of Japan, but you’d think with Japan facing a population decline, they might want to pay a little more attention to the most important component to addressing that problem.

As it stands, it almost seems as if there is a knowing and willful lack of details in the hope that kids will go out unarmed and uninformed, and copulate with the end result of more “deki-chatta” weddings to help bolster the population, especially since more and more young people, particularly Japanese women, are eschewing the ideas of marriage and family altogether.
TPOJ at 12:00 PM JST - 13th March

The mind boggles as to what they would have come up with. I'm trying not to imagine what was considered 'extreme'.

Uh, in Japan? More specifically, the Japanese school system?

My first thought doesn't run to "they went crazy with the details" so much as it runs to "the authorities freaked out when they discovered the dolls had painted on pubic hair."

Add ANOTSUSAGAMI's details to the mix (i.e. the lesson was done with full cooperation from the parents,) not to mention that the court ruled AGAINST the government (against the government...against the AUTHORITIES...in JAPAN!!!!!) and I feel safe in assuming that the issue lies with oversensitive, backwards authority figures, not an overly graphic sex ed class.
medievaltimes at 12:04 PM JST - 13th March

It's funny...some special ed teachers try to teach sex ed but get blasted because their methods are "too extreme".

Meanwhile, go down the street to any convenience store or book shop and find loads of porn. It's within plain view. Open the pages and what do you find...depictions of rape and sex with little girls.

Hmmmm let's see.........Yeah, I think I will choose the teachers. The alternative seems "too extreme" to me.
glaspar at 12:47 PM JST - 13th March

does sex...need education? haha
timorborder at 01:54 PM JST - 13th March

Great comment LFR, as the father of a junior high school student, I found it highly informative.
soldave at 03:53 PM JST - 13th March

So are we thinking because they didn't depict a girl in a maid/school uniform being raped by something with tentacles that the people who were monitoring the class were shocked (possibly they had never seen anything that wasn't like this) and deemed it too extreme?
soldave at 03:54 PM JST - 13th March

glaspar - You've obviously been a good judge of character ;)
whyamiinjapan at 04:06 PM JST - 13th March

"Intervention". In a sex education class. Interesting. Using dolls may not be effective unless the onlooker can transfer or make an allegory of the lesson. Like the story of the men on the overpopulated island in the South Pacific who were shown how to use condoms by putting them on the ends of broomsticks. When the health officials came back 5 years later, the population had boomed. After investigation, it was discovered that they had been faithfully putting them on the end of the broomsticks but were as puzzled as the officials as to why the magic didn't work.
presto345 at 04:51 PM JST - 13th March

The methods considered 'extreme' were employed in the area where I live too (Chugoku district) and they drew a lot of criticism from not only the parents but also PTO members. The dolls and graphic materials were used for sex education in elementary schools, from 4th grade up. The classes did not have any mentally handicapped children. The sex educators developed their own teaching materials and props outside the approved curriculum and the board of education and school principals were not aware what was going on. Neither were the parents for a long time as the kids were too confused and shocked to talk about it.
tyciol at 11:21 PM JST - 14th March

I think for mentally handicapped students they should educate them on other matters to prepare their minds for sex ed. If they are behind in other subjects then they won't perceive it the same way that students ahead of them in other subjects would.

If you're mentally handicapped then even if you're above the age of consent, you can often be judged too uninformed to give legal consent so any sex with you would be rape anyway.

Then again they do teach sex ed to minors prior to the age of consent a lot of the time. They should do it earlier though, since many disregard it and have it much younger.