'Miscarriage Club' harassed Japan teacher

HANDA CITY, Japan, April 8 (UPI) -- A pregnant junior high teacher in Japan was harassed by students who formed a "Miscarriage Cub" because they felt she played favorites, a vice principal said.

Japan Today said Wednesday the Shukan Post reported 11 boys at a municipal junior high school in Handa City tampered with their seventh-grade homeroom teacher's lunch, put glue mixed with powdered chalk on her car and loosened the screws on her chair.

The school's vice principal said the harassment, which came to light in February, began after the teacher changed the students' seating at the end of the second semester to accommodate students with developmental disabilities. Apparently some students considered the seating change a sign of favoritism, the school official said.

None of the 11 members of the group, which they had named "Make Teacher 'A' Have a Miscarriage," had reputations as problem students, the vice principal said.

"The naming of the club is inexcusable, but the students had no murderous intentions," he said. "We think the students were just fooling around."

The school held a parent-teacher conferences with each student to instruct them on respect for life and to learn to judge between right and wrong. They also were made to apologize to their teacher.