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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993                   TAG: 9302110060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A16   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: KOBE, JAPAN                                LENGTH: Short

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EX-JAPANESE TEACHER SENTENCED IN FATALITY

The Kobe District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former high school teacher to a one-year prison term, suspended for three years, for professional negligence resulting in death for a July 1990 incident in which a student's head was crushed between a gate and a gatepost.

The death of Ryoko Ishida, 15, a student of Takatsuka High School in Kobe City, drew national attention because the case was perceived by educators and parents to be a tragic byproduct of the pre-college education system's tendency to impose stifling rules on students.

The incident occurred on the morning of July 6, 1990, when Toshihiko Hosoi, 41, was closing the 500-pound iron school gate and Ishida tried to get through to make it to school on time. She was struck by the gate and died shortly afterward at a hospital.

Hosoi, who was supervising tardy students, closed the gate in strict accordance with the school's rules. The rules were introduced in 1987 to cope with a rapid increase in the number of students who arrived late for school. He was later dismissed by the local board of education.

- The New York Times

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