Japanese teacher suspended for selling a lot of cows without telling the school

The man’s actions were udderly despicable.

On March 30, the Nagasaki Prefectural Board of Education announced that they had suspended a 48-year-old male teacher at a prefectural high school for six months. The teacher was suspended for selling sixty-two calves that were born in the school’s barn, and while the school has not been named, most Japanese high schools don’t have barns or breed cows, so it’s likely that the teacher worked at an agricultural school.

According to the Board of Education, the man was the head of a group of teachers in charge of looking after the cows at the school, and he was required to report to the school every time a new calf was born. The school’s policy dictated that, due to the cost of keeping them fed, male dairy cows were to be sold soon after their birth. However, over a period of six and a half years, a very small number of male cows had been reported as born.

Instead, the teacher sold the cows directly to traders and stockbreeders without permission and kept the money. Some of the cows that were sold, most of which were male dairy cows, were worth so much that they ended up going to auction, and the teacher pocketed 3.6 million yen (US$30,500).

Netizens were appalled at the teacher’s behaviour, with many commenting that a stricter punishment was needed.

“This is 100 percent embezzlement. Surely someone else at the school knew about this.”
“I think there’s more to this. This smells like gang activity.”
“Only six months suspension?! At an office job you’d totally be fired for this.”
“I guess any crime that happens in a school isn’t an actual ‘crime’.”
“If no one noticed for over six years, that’s some serious mismanagement.”

Six months suspension for stealing over $30,000 from your workplace certainly does seem a little mild, but considering a fellow educator in nearby Kumamoto Prefecture only got three months suspension for slapping and kicking a student, we’re not really surprised. Hopefully when the teacher returns to work, they’ll put someone else in charge of looking after the cows.

Source: Asahi Shimbun via Jin
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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