A school in Japan is being praised for the steps they are taking to protect their students.
They are working to ensure the safety of their female cheerleading team in time for the Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament, more popularly known as the Spring Koshien. This nationwide event draws thousands of sports fans to the stadium—not all with good intentions.
Takasaki University of Health and Welfare High School from the Gunma Prefecture learned from their experience in the tournament last year that their cheerleaders are vulnerable to child pornography. They were victims of upskirt photography, with voyeurs posing as media crew and taking angled photos of the girls from below.
To stop this from happening again, Takasaki is redesigning the uniform to replace skirts with shorts. They will also look similar to the jerseys that the players are wearing to keep in line with the sports theme. This decision has resulted in a positive response from the public, with the school making headlines in Japan for changing the basic look of the traditional cheering outfit to accommodate safety concerns.
Kohei Shiozawa, the teacher who is in charge of Takasaki’s cheering club activities, said the redesign was based on a goal to protect their students from “lifelong emotional damage.”
Voyeuristic photos can potentially cause lifelong emotional damage to our students.
— Kohei Shiozawa, the teacher overseeing the cheerleading team
This is not the first time a Japanese high school made an effort to keep their cheerleaders safe from predators. Some have resorted to requiring them to wear long sleeves inside their shirts despite the heat. Others remind them constantly to place towels on their laps when sitting down while wearing skirts.
It can’t be helped. We never know where and how voyeurs will be, so our countermeasures are still at the trial and error stage. It’s difficult.
— Reika Kuroda, the teacher overseeing another cheerleading team
Source: NHK and Sora News 24
