A report by a third-party panel confirms bullying was the cause of a suicide by a second-year junior high school student in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture. (Yuki Kamauchi)

KAKOGAWA, Hyogo Prefecture--Teachers at a municipal junior high school here were blamed by a third-party panel for overlooking the bullying of a student that led to her suicide in September 2016.

The results of an investigation into the suicide by the panel were released on Dec. 23. The report concluded that bullying led to the suicide of the second-year student, who was 14 when she died.

The report said there were repeated instances when teachers could have intervened to stop the tormenting, but that nothing was done.

The father of the student released a statement through the family's lawyer, Yoshiyasu Watanabe. The father said bereaved family members had so little trust in the school that a third-party panel had to be set up to look into the incident.

"Based on the results of the report, I feel as though our daughter was literally killed by the school," the father said.

He also said the family only learned from the panel's report that the girl had reported being bullied in a school questionnaire conducted in her second year.

"We cannot understand why the school never gave us any information about our daughter while she was still alive," the father's comment said.

The girl died eight days after she attempted suicide on Sept. 12, 2016.

The panel made up of lawyers and other individuals was set up by the Kakogawa education board because it viewed the case as serious since notes were discovered at the girl's home hinting at the bullying she was experiencing at school.

Panel members interviewed the girl's bereaved family members, her classmates and teachers at the school.

The panel's report said the girl was bullied from her first year at the junior high school. She was ignored and called a nickname she hated during class and in her club activity.

In the second term of the first year, the parent of another student who was also targeted for bullying during club activities complained to teachers, but the club adviser determined it was simply a problem between students and that no bullying had occurred. As a result, the incident was not shared with other teachers.

That led to an escalation of the bullying during the third term and it continued into the girl's second year.

The school handed out a questionnaire about students' daily lives in June of her second year. The girl wrote that she was being bullied, but the school did nothing.

The lawyer who read portions of the report that were not made public said the teacher in charge of the girl's homeroom class concluded her responses were caused by problems that arose during club activities. The teacher in charge of the second year did not give any instructions to deal with the situation.

"If the school had taken measures (at the time of the questionnaire), it is rational to conclude that no suicide attempt would have been made," the panel's report said.

It went on to say there was no sharing of the understanding or recognition of bullying among the teachers and said the school failed as an organization to take any action.

It called on the city's education board to compile a five-year plan that would cover all municipal schools to improve the situation.

While the girl's father said distrust of the school had reached an extreme level, he also thanked the panel for shedding light on the bullying.

"We take very seriously the loss of a precious life," Hiroyuki Tabuchi, the head of the Kakogawa education board, said at a news conference. "We sincerely accept the recommendations made by the panel."

(This article was written by Naonori Nakamura and Koji Takahashi.)