Panel of experts including lawyers, doctors and former police officers to deal with ‘monster parents’

Report: Experts should deal with feisty parents

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Liberal Democratic Party’s subcommittee on school management has drawn up a draft report proposing the introduction of panels of experts in municipal education boards to tackle unreasonable demands placed on teachers by parents.

The panel would include lawyers, doctors and former police officers.

The subcommittee, headed by LDP House of Representatives member Takeo Kawamura, discussed the draft report at a Wednesday meeting.

The subcommittee plans to ask the government to include measures proposed in the report in the government’s basic program for economic and financial reform, scheduled to be released next month.

The draft report called for the groups of experts to handle all unreasonable demands from students’ parents because these types of demands have increasingly disrupted teaching.

In addition, the draft report proposes two separate courses to train midcareer teachers around age 40. One course would train them for supervisory positions, the other would train them to mentor other teachers.

(May. 22, 2008)

Daily Yomiuri