The Sasebo school district in Nagasaki, Japan requires all sixth-graders in the city to take cooking classes as part of their spring curriculum. Classes have been suspended at one school, however, ever since a student stabbed one of her classmates to death last month (the stabbing did not take place, as far as I can tell, in cooking class). The reason for the suspension is not safety, but sensitivity: Teachers are afraid that the sight of a knife will upset students by reminding them of the stabbing. No word on whether the school is encouraging parents to replace all home cutlery with plastic spoons.

I really shouldnt read posts like this right after I finish reading The Onion...

Oh I don't know... Perhaps the parents feel differently. By the way, there are usually no classmates at home -- at least ones who hate you enough to want to stab you.

"there are usually no classmates at home -- at least ones who hate you enough to want to stab you."

You obviously never had a brother. ;-)

The abuse of something does not forbid its use.--Someone famous said that.

Give it time - they'll make everyone wear gloves to prevent paper cuts! ;-)

Uh, is post this supposed to be funny? It comes across as mean-spirited and stupid.

In Japan, unlike the US, a student murdering another student is not a normal event, thus the district probably doesn't have a predetermined policy for dealing with it. A silly reaction like cancelling cooking classes is pretty understandable considering that school administrators had never dealt with anything remotely like that before.

Uh, Dave, are you being serious? If not, you need to work on your sarcasm chops. If you are, you haven't paid attention to Japanese school news.

Yeah, dave, if anyone can be accused of exploiting tasteless irony in the stabbing of the Mitarai girl (you're right, Erin, BTW: she was lured by a classmate to one of the study rooms), it's the teacher in another district who just a few weeks later made a student prick his finger with a cutter and write an apology for misbehavior in blood. And Michael's right. There's some bizarre child-on-child murder (or a suicide by a victim of bullying) here in Japan about once a year or so. When reporting it, the Western press invariably works the "In this relatively crime-free country, this grisly crime on school grounds has provoked shock and much soul-searching" angle. By this point, I think people are actually pretty used to the way the school system makes some people flip out.

These posts are great. I now know why I keep coming back. Thanks!