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Police have arrested three teachers at a nursery school in central Japan on suspicion they routinely abused toddlers, including hitting their heads, holding them upside down and locking them up in a bathroom, in a case that has triggered outrage and allegations of a cover-up.
Shizuoka prefectural police said they arrested three women on Sunday on suspicion of assaulting at least three children in June at a nursery school in the city of Susono, at the foot of Mount Fuji.
The mayor of Susono, Harukaze Murata, told reporters on Monday that he had also filed a criminal complaint against the school’s director, Toshihiko Sakurai, for allegedly covering up the abuses. He urged police to widen their investigation.
In one case in June, one of the teachers is accused of holding a boy upside down. Another teacher pushed a girl in the face, according to police, and the third slapped the head of another boy.
Their arrests followed a search of the private school by police on Saturday in response to the city’s revelation last week of 15 counts of alleged abuses between June and August.
