Child's Safety

What can a child do?

     A very disturbing act of crime took place in my hometown of Wahiawa this morning. A 59 years old teacher who was preparing for her class in her classroom at 6:30 am was beaten, robbed and sexually assaulted by two suspects. The suspects are still at large. I naively thought that such heinous crimes only took place in the "Big Cities" on the mainland. How foolish I was.
とても酷い犯罪が自分の育ったワヒアワで今朝起きた。５９歳の先生が朝六時半、二人の男に性的暴行を受け、強盗にあった。彼女はその日の授業の準備をしてた。被疑者はまだ捕まっていない。単純にこのような犯罪は本土の大都市でしか起きないと思ってた。おろかだった。
     I had just had a mini-reunion with two of my high school classmates (Class of '68) just the other day.  reminiscing of the "good old days" in our hometown. The only "hard" things that popped up were our classmates that ended up in a faraway place known as Vietnam. Crime was not in our vocabulary. What peaceful lives we had back then.
つい最近、高校の同級生とミニ同窓会があった(６８年卒）そして昔話の良き時代に沸いた。
唯一しびやな課題は誰があの時遠いベトナムに行ったかであった。犯罪って単語は無かった。
本当昔は平和な日々を過ごした。
     Naturally, after the news came out, the commentary section was filled with speculation, innuendos, dissertations on the causes, mostly based on emotions. Some even hinted guilt of the victim for being in school at 6:30 am! Such rubbish!
そして、事件が報道されたら色々はコッメンとが流れた。主に感情的な推測とか論文もどきコッメンとだった。中には朝６時半に学校に居たから先生に責任があるとまで！くだらん！
     Back to the point I wanted to make. In this case a 59 years old female was the victim. Now, what if the victim was an elementary school student?  Add to that a martial arts student. Do we really expect the child to be able to defend his/her self against an adult? Readers know my feelings about "seminars".
話を戻そう。この件では被害者が５９歳の女性だった。これが小学生だったら？それに武道を学んでいたとしたら？子供が大人に抵抗して自分を守れると本当に思うのだろうか。読者が私がセミナー類をどう思っているか知っていると思う。
Is self protection the sole responsibility of a child?  I do not think so. The best thing we can do as adults is to teach the children to be aware of danger and to quickly disengage from the situation and seek help.
It is also the parents responsibility not to drop off the children earlier than necessary before school starts or to have them wait long after school ends. Granted, once a child is on school property then it would the school's responsibility to ensure their safety. But then, what are the time limits? In this age of budget cuts and  less funding is it realistic to to expect schools to be able to do that outside of school operating hours? Sigh, so many issues to deal with. Pros and Cons.
自己防衛は子供の責任だろうか？自分はそうは思わない。大人として出来る事は子供に危機意識を持たせ速やかに危険から逃げ助けを求めることを教えることだとおもう。子供を早く送ったり、遅くまで待たせないのは親の責任でｓる。確かに構内に入ったら生徒の安全は学校に責任である。しかし時間の枠は？現在の予算削で時間外まで学校に子供も面倒を見てもらうのは現実的だろうか？色々な課題が残る。賛否様論。
       I know that in Japan, safety of kids to and from school became a major issue when several incidents of kidnapping and murder of children took place. Measures such as group movement to and from school were implemented. Parents taking turns being at the school at start and ending times, emergency buzzers attached to school bags, GPS locators became the norm for children to carry. Self Defense classes for kids popped up like mushrooms (**;).
二本でいくつかの誘拐殺害事件の後子供の安全が問われ、集団徒校が実地されている。親たちが交代で発校、退校時間に行ったり、警報ブザーをランドセルにつけたり、ＧＰＳが通常になったりした。子供の護身術もきのこのように出来た。
      What I would like to propose is to gather all the retirees in the neighborhood and form groups to patrol the campus prior to and after school hours. Provide them with com gear so that they can contact the local PD. They should work in pairs. Overt presence is a big deterrence. After all how many retirees I see at McDonald's from early in the morning drinking coffee and shooting the breeze. Make use of our senior citizens. We are not asking them to confront perpetrators, just to report suspicious activities or people on the school grounds. Leave the handling of suspects to the police.
時分は近所の退職者を集めて構内のパトロールを発校、退校時間にすればいい。無線機をもたせすぐに警察に連絡が出来るようにする。ペアーで巡回する。見える防衛手段は効果がある。
朝早くからマックでコーヒー飲みながら世間話をしている退職者は沢山いる。そのような人を動員するべきだ。犯罪者と対抗するのではなく、怪しいことや人を構内に見たら即報告するだけでいい。対応は警察に任せる。
      Yes, we can push for emergency funding and put in security cameras on campus. But unless there is a control desk where someone is monitoring the cameras, the it becomes "after the fact". It aids in apprehending the perpetrators but the crime has already been committed. Security cameras may serve as a deterrent but are not fail proof.
緊急予算を請求し防犯カメラなどを構内に置くこともできる。だが誰かか常にそれを見ていなければ“後の祭り”になる。被疑者逮捕に繋がるかもしれないが犯罪は行われたあと。犯罪防止には役にたうだろう、しかし完璧ではない。

      As Sensei Tony and anyone else in the Law Enforcement knows, the incident has not ended for the victim. The pain of going through an investigation and when  the perpatrators are caught, the pain of going through the legal proceedings is something I do not wish on anyone. In order to bring the perpetrator to justice the victim has to "relive" the attack over and over again. My heart goes out to her.
トニー先生と長年の法律執行経験者は承知のとおり事件は被害者にとってまだ終わっていない。
捜査、逮捕後の裁判の痛い経験は誰にも味わいさせたくない。有罪までにもってきくには何回もあの悲劇を体験するからである。心が痛む。