Emergency Meeting After Child's Water Bottle Contaminated

Mar 19, 2024 | News On Japan

TOKYO - An emergency meeting began on Monday afternoon at the Suginami Ward Office in Tokyo, involving representatives from public elementary and junior high schools and nurseries, following a mysterious incident where a student's water bottle, brought from home, was found to contain an "abnormal" substance.

Takashi Shiraishi, the Superintendent of Education in Suginami Ward, stated, "As you all know, there was an incident at an elementary school where a foreign substance was found in a student's water bottle."

This is the second such incident in Suginami Ward.

The child noticed something unusual around 11:30 a.m. on March 14th in a classroom at Momoi Fourth Elementary School. When the child tasted the contents of the water bottle for the first time that day, they realized it was not ordinary water and immediately spat it out.

Although the child did not suffer any health problems, the school consulted with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

The school held a parent-teacher meeting last weekend, apologizing for causing great concern despite a similar incident occurring in Suginami Ward last month.

The school explained that the water bottle was hung beside the desk and that there were times when the classroom was unoccupied. While the school believes that the incident was not caused by bullying, when parents questioned the possibility of an adult perpetrator, the school responded, "As you said, everyone present in the school that day is under suspicion, including adults and children. We want to investigate and work towards improvement."

Regarding the possibility of an outsider's intrusion, the school said, "Although the security cameras did not capture any suspicious individuals, it is possible for someone to climb into the school if they intended to, so we cannot rule out the possibility of an external intrusion."

The school has suspended the bringing of water bottles until spring break.

A parent with a child at the same school expressed, "It's too late to do anything after something happens, so I can't say I'm not worried. It might be reassuring if the homeroom teacher could manage all the water bottles. But that would probably be a burden on the teacher."

In February, a similar incident occurred at an elementary school approximately 3 km away in Suginami Ward.

These puzzling incidents have occurred just before the end of the school year and promotion to the next grade.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is planning to analyze security camera footage.

Source: FNN

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