A school in Shiga prefecture in Japan admitted on Friday, June 21, to making female students verbally report details about their menstrual cycle for permission to skip swimming class.
For the past five years, the common practice followed by physical education teachers of the Shiga Prefectural Ritto High School was noticed by authorities after a parent complained to the education board, reported Kyodo news.
The principal of the school, Satoshi Saito, apologized for causing "mental distress" to students.
Details regarding the case emerged after a first-year female student told her parents that she was made to say her name, class and number of days into her menstrual cycle in the presence of other teachers in the room. She had gone to inform her PE teacher and excuse herself from swimming class, reported the Japanese news site.
The parents of the child lodged two separate complaints as the situation was ignored by the school authorities.
However, the school explained that the measure was to ensure about the student's physical condition and "plan upcoming classes". But Saito acknowledged that the practice had wronged the students and called it "unacceptable in terms of conventional wisdom and lacks consideration for students."
A study by the Japan Enlightenment Committee in Endometriosis in 2014 reveal, around 8 million women in the country suffer from dysmenorrhea- a medical term for severe menstrual pain. Only 10 percent of females received treatment.
