Another day at Nishi Chu...

Yes, it was a day like any other at Nishi Chu, the junior high school where I "teach" English. But wait, there was something strange about today. I was sitting on my ass in the teachers' room, alternating between reading and staring blankly at Nick, who sits in front of me, when Nick commented that "the battle royale is coming to the palace". I thought this a strange comment, but I assumed he was referring to the raised voices of the bad girls out in the hall, a pretty everyday occurence. Maybe he has a sense for these things, because the group drifted into the teachers' room and the raised voices seemed to be an argument. It was still relatively muted, and I dismissed the intrusion and returned to my book: "The Book of Tells" by British psychologist Peter Collett. But the bad girls spread out in the room, and one girl intentionally slid an umbrella and some books off a shelf onto the floor.
"What the hell?", I asked. "What does she think she's doing?"
Nick gestured to the other corner of the room where three teachers where standing by one of the makeup-covered bad girls. She was arguing heatedly with a tall woman with a long face drawn out in sad, serious lines. She looked serious, but wasn't doing anything about this girl. Nick translated. The girl was demanding her cell phone back, as the teachers had confiscated it. She then began to scream, and would punctuate her demands by slamming her hands down on the counter. She kicked the cupboards. Her two friends stood and watched. One of them took out her cell phone and stated "I still have my cell phone!" in a provocation to the teachers. I was most amazed by the teachers' reactions: nothing. They stood around when she yelled, and gathered near here when she was violent, but did nothing. One or two teachers spoke to her. The principal emerged from his office and walked toward the scene, fear written on his face. As he approached he put his hands on his hips to show he was the authority (a tell which Peter Collett discusses) but when he reached the huddle he paused, then pivoted on his foot and walked back into the safety of his office. He is a principal of pomp and circumstance, but not of action.

Eventually the situation was defused because the girl could tell she wouldn't get her way. She gave a last scream of fury and frustration and stormed out. Nick described the incident as a "show", and that's what the girl's friends seemed to treat it as. In my junior high in Japan, cell phones come in conflict with proper school behaviour but they just don't have the balls to do anything about it.