Talk:Ryoko Ishida

Name change

Can someone please change the name of the page to include the proper spelling of her name, 'Ryōko'. 134.41.171.198 (talk) 18:45, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Update: page should be called ‘Death of Ryōko Ishida’ instead, as it is more about the incident and less about her whole life as a person. 134.41.171.198 (talk) 18:58, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

This is too close to the script of my video...

This article VERY closely follows the script of my YouTube video, 'Takatsuka Gate Incident', which is listed as a source. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixGDqaFdnhg

It is a paraphrasing of my video.

While I am flattered, I really do not think that my video should be a main source for this article.

A few notes:

- In my video, I stated that he was sentenced to 3 years' probation. This is not entirely correct, though I did not feel the need to correct it. He was sentenced to a year of confinement, though this was deferred to 3 years of probation.

- In my video, I added that the gate weighed a quarter ton (even though it's a little short of a quarter ton). This rough approximation was taken from my video.

- His name is Toshihiko 'Hosoi', not 'Osoi'.

The wording of this article is really too similar to the script of my video. I am very happy to see a Wiki article after the release of my video, I made this because I saw that there was no English wiki article about it. However, this article should be flagged for review.

The Japanese language Wikipedia article for this incident is very good and that should be the main source for this article. Link: 神戸高塚高校校門圧死事件 Kayobiclub (talk) 04:47, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Here is the text of my video from the subtitles:

The morning commute is something of a sacred thing in Japan, emblematic of a culture that holds punctuality and adherence to rules and high regard. However in 1990, a tragic and avoidable event shocked the nation and brought into question the strict expectations placed upon students at the time.

On the morning of July 6th 1990, on the outskirts of Kobe, Japan, 15-year-Ryoko Ishida found herself running late for school alongside a friend, unnamed in later reports, referred to as "Girl A". After connecting by bus she went by train to Seishin-Chuo Station arriving at 8:17. One train later than she normally would have taken. From the station she began the 15-minute walk to Takatsuka High School along the designated route for students. Along which were two teachers with megaphones, counting down the time until the morning bell would ring and hurrying students along. Takatsuka High School had a reputation for strict rules but above all else: students were expected to arrive early and be past the school gate before the bell rang at 8:30. Late students were made to run two laps around the field then do squats until teachers were satisfied that they had learned their lesson before they were allowed to head to class. A third teacher, 39-year-old Toshihiko Hosoi waited at the gate counting down the seconds before the 8:30 bell. At which time, the gate would be closed so that disciplinary action could be doled out to tardy students. Hosoi was known for being hot-tempered and for harshly enforcing rules; this is attributed to his time at a previous school which was claimed to be plagued with unruly students. He was a man of strength and large stature which is thought to be why he somewhat regularly was in charge of closing the gate.

The gate in question was about 6 meters long and a meter and a half high weighing 1/4 of a ton or 230 kg. The metal gate slid along rails and took considerable strength to close.

At 8:30, as soon as the bell rang he began to push the gate closed, determined not to let any more students through. A group of students ran up as they heard the bell but stopped just before it when they saw the gate was already in motion. Ryoko and Girl A, seeing the students running chased after them, hoping to make it before the gate was fully closed. In a last ditch effort to make it onto school grounds they split up and moved around the group girl a realizing she wouldn't make it stopped short of the gate but Ryoko, still still seeming to think she could squeeze through the gap between the concrete wall and the gate, tried to make herself as small as possible, leaning forward as she ran and didn't slow down as she dashed toward the entrance. Ryoko's head was caught between the heavy gate in the concrete wall. An onlooking male student rushed over and tried to push the gate back to release Ryoko who had collapsed and was convulsing on the ground. Believing that students were trying to open the gate and make it past to avoid punishment. Hosoi, not realizing what had happened, believed that the student was trying to open the gate to make it passed and avoid punishment reportedly calling him an idiot as he walked toward the end of the gate. Upon arriving, he would have seen Ryoko collapsed on the ground with blood coming out of her ears and mouth she was brought by ambulance to Kobe University Hospital and just under 2 hours after the gate was slammed on her, she died. The impact had crushed her skull fatally injuring her brain.

The school's response to one of their students dying on campus was appalling to say the least. Despite the horrific event that happened on campus that morning, students were made to take their final exams as usual. Hosoi himself administered tests that day, responding to questions about Ryoko's condition with "she's hurt but it's not like it's anything life-threatening". When police arrived on the scene-- called not by school officials but someone at the hospital-- they found that the school had hosed down the pool of Ryoko's blood before they could conduct their investigation. The press quickly picked up the story and it became nation-wide news overnight. The very next day an assembly was held and reporters were present. This was the message that principal Atsuo Nomura gave the students of Takatsuka High School the day after their classmate had died:

The school and school board maintained that this was an issue between the teacher and student and that the school was not to blame for her death. The investigation found that the force of the gate slamming into the concrete wall would have been enough to crush even a safety helmet. Charges of manslaughter due to his negligence were brought against Hosoi. He defended himself saying that the school board and Department of Education were at fault for lack of a proper safety procedure and that he couldn't possibly have foreseen that a student would try and make it through the gap before he had fully closed the gate. According to testimonies, students bags and skirts of their uniforms had been caught in the gate while closing it in the past, proving to the court that he knew of the dangers presented by slamming the gate shut in front of students. The court found Hosoi guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to 3 years of probation. As a result he lost his teacher's license. Hosoi would go on to write a book about his story of how he was expected to conduct "police-like" enforcement of rules to combat rising levels of delinquency by the school board. Additionally, a civil suit was brought against the prefectural government which was settled on November 16th 1990 with a payment to the family of 60 million yen for the loss of their child. Ryoko's tragic and unnecessary Death sparked a debate in Japan around the rules imposed on students. Nowadays, stories about schools with ridiculous rules and practices still abound, though definitely less so as time goes on. The gate at Takatsuka High School where Ryoko Ishida died has since been replaced with a smaller, shorter one and to this day a group made up of her family teachers and classmates regularly meet at the spot where Ryoko lost her life on July 6th 1990. Kayobiclub (talk) 04:49, 24 June 2024 (UTC)