A board of education in Yamaguchi Prefecture has apologized that a junior high school student has become unable to attend school since hearing what teachers in a staff room discussed about students. The conversation was recorded accidentally on a learning tablet.

The board of education in Iwakuni City on Thursday apologized over the incident.

The board explained that a teacher at a public junior high school in the city noticed after class on October 31 that several students had forgotten to take their learning tablets home. The teacher decided to keep the tablets overnight on a desk in the teachers' room.

What the teacher did not realize was that one of the tablets had its audio recording function left on. The tablet recorded the conversations among teachers, without any of them being aware.

The next day, the teacher returned this tablet and all the other ones to the students.

The student whose tablet had accidentally made the recording realized that the teachers talked about student guidance and other personal information or their feelings about specific students.

The student sent the audio recording to a number of classmates.

The board of education said that one of the students who found out what the teachers were talking about has stopped attending school since early this month.

One of the teachers who took part in the recorded conversation has also become unable to come to work.
Officials at the junior high have visited the homes of all the students who shared the audio recording, or whose names were mentioned in the recording, and apologized. The school has deleted the recording since then.

Moriyama Toshiharu of the Iwakuni City's Board of Education said at a news conference on Thursday that an accidental recording like this could occur at any school. He said he will step up efforts to ensure that teachers understand how to use learning tablets properly.