- 5 Feb 2005
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Woman locked teenage daughter at home for 10 years
FUKUOKA -- A woman under arrest for inflicting bodily injury on her daughter locked the teenage girl in their home here for more than 10 years until late October, preventing the victim from attending school, it was learned Tuesday.
The municipal board of education and the school the girl was enrolled in were aware that she had been absent from school, and officials and teachers occasionally visited her home in a bid to persuade her to attend school. However, they failed to take any particular action to fundamentally solve the problem.
The girl's 40-year-old mother hit her on the afternoon of Oct. 28 for watching television without permission, leaving her with bodily injuries. The girl, now 18, escaped from her home in Hakata-ku, and was living at parks until she was rescued by police on Nov. 1. The girl suffered wounds that took 10 days to heal and is now hospitalized for a medical check-up.
Her mother is under arrest for inflicting bodily injury.
When the girl was 9 years old, the Fukuoka Municipal Board of Education instructed the elementary school she was enrolled in to persuade the girl to attend school.
Her homeroom teacher and the principal of the school began to regularly visit her home when she was a sixth-grader. Each time, however, her mother told them that she was staying at a relative's home and prevented them from meeting her.
The school and the board did not know anything about the girl's health condition and her daily life.
When teachers at the school asked the girl's brother and sister about her, they refused to reply, officials said.
In September 2001, officials from the board, the school and the municipal child guidance center consulted over how to respond to the situation. They then chose to continue to visit her home without notifying police on the grounds that they would be charged with trespassing if they forcibly entered her home. Through these visits they were able to contact her mother.
The board of education is poised to take action to integrate the girl into society.
"Because she never left home, I don't think the neighbors even knew she existed. We'll consult with the child guidance center to determine measures to respond to the problem, such as choosing a home for her," Hiroki Tokunaga, head of the board's school affairs division, said. (Mainichi)
Crazy to lock your child 10 years☝