LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010619/tCB00V6337.html
Tuesday, June 19, 2001
Woman Slashes Kindergarten Teacher
TOKYO-- A woman with a kitchen knife forced her way into a Tokyo
kindergarten and slashed a teacher before fleeing Tuesday, less than two
weeks after a man stormed an elementary school and stabbed eight children
to death.
The teacher, a 23 -year-old woman, was slashed on her hands and leg
before the attacker fled, police said. The teacher was taken to the
hospital, but her injuries were minor.
The school was not yet open for the day, and there were no children
near the school's back gate, where the early morning attack occurred.
Police said the attacker was believed to be a middle-aged woman, and
confirmed that she was carrying a kitchen knife.
Reports said she may also have had attacked the teacher with a stick.
No other details were available, and the motive of the attacker was
unknown. She was still at large several hours after the attack.
The kindergarten, attended by about 200 children, was closed after
the incident and arriving children were sent home, said school official
Naoko Ezawa.
The slashing comes amid heightened concern over the safety of Japan's
schools following the slaughter of the eight first- and second-grade
children at a prestigious elementary school in a suburb of Osaka, in
western Japan, less than two weeks ago.
That attack shocked Japan and prompted calls from Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi and others for increased school security. Because the
attacker, Mamoru Takuma, had a history of psychological treatment, it has
also fueled a debate over the handling of suspects believed to be mentally
unstable.
Takuma, 37, was accused in 1999 of slipping tranquilizers into the
tea of four teachers at the school where he worked as a janitor. Diagnosed
as a schizophrenic, he was never charged and was sent to a mental
hospital, which later released him.
Koizumi and his Cabinet agreed last week on the need for tighter
security at the nation's schools, and the Education Ministry has
instructed all elementary, middle and high schools to re-evaluate campus
security.
Many have begun posting guards, or closing their gates during the
day.
The attack was Japan's worst mass killing since a deadly nerve gas
attack on Tokyo's subways six years ago, and the latest in a series of
fatal slashings in a country that has strict gun laws and has prided
itself on a low crime rate.
A family of four was murdered in their Tokyo home in December, just
four months after a 15 -year-old newspaper delivery boy was arrested in
southwestern Japan on suspicion of stabbing three neighbors to death as
they slept. Two other fatal stabbings over the past year and a half have
occurred in schoolyards.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times