Seems like some news says they were ordering “party pills”, which are illegal in the US, NZ, and Australia because of BZP (benzylpiperazine). I guess it’s illegal in Japan as well. Could be an interesting twist to the story though if they were ordering a type of Pep Pills that does not include BZP (the wikipedia entry for “party pills” mentions that some natural pills withough BZP are being sold in New Zealand). I hope it turns out that what they ordered is legal. Less likely would be that would also be that if the pills were legal, 44 pills exceeds personal use limitations for one or more of the ingredients and they were taken in for intent to sell.

Like I said though, I hope there was a mistake and it all clears up for them.

Those are the wrong Facebook pages. You have linked other ALT’s profiles.

on another note, why would you link two random facebook pages both of which are not the same ashley and kristen to this?

considering one of them is from sasebo… it should be evident

As for shipping, if i were to buy a brand of deodorant or something I can’t get in japan I would use the internet, but I wouldn’t buy one stick at a time I would buy a few so that I didn’t pay five dollars to ship each time but rather seven to ship four or five sticks. I think this is the same principle.

How about this…Instead of judging and pointing out all the wrong doings of others, why not focus on ourselves. Everybody is so concerned about reporting everybody’s screw ups and mishaps that they forget to live their own lifves. We all make mistakes and this does not reflect everyone in the JET program. I think the author of this article DAVE from the UK is a ignorant idiot and should not have made that comment. I can name a number of writers in the past that have reported false information but that does not mean every reporter now is not credible…There are bigger problems going on in the world now. Both of these girls have I’m sure learned their lesson already. Let it go and move on!

I have both contacts on the social networking site Facebook. I can confirm at least one of them was the incorrect profile linked in this thread.

I know I’m echoing some of the sentiments already expressed here but…

Jay, I don’t think this is an issue of professionalism. Not at all. It seems to me that you are just trying to disparage and attack the competition. My colleagues and I are incredibly professional. We go in, just as you do, everyday and perform the same tasks, if not more. Please do not lump us all in with a few people, who have made a grave error. These girls should be pitied. You don’t know them in the least. You don’t know how hard they worked everyday and how genuinely shocked everyone was when they heard about this story.

While it might be more beneficial to have professionally train teachers, that doesn’t guarantee a more professional environment. We are all people. We are all susceptible to the same mistakes, vices and desires. Having an additional certificate doesn’t make you impervious.

Nesta, I understand your feelings but please don’t make personal attacks.

Dave, I’m happy that you’ve deleted their profiles but somewhat happy that you won’t take a step further and delete their names from your blog. While I know the damage is done, I still think you should edit them out.

Also, I would like to read that article you submitted to CLAIR if you still have it.

Hyacinth – Thank you for bringing up the issue of professionalism. I’d been thinking about writing a follow up or catching up with the comments on this post.

First of all, my concerns about professionalism are maybe based on a few encounters with JETs and some articles I’ve seen on the net written by JETs who recommend the job because you can get a lot of reading done and pursue other interests while making money.

When I really think about it though, I know a lot of familied, older teachers who refuse to be a real part of the system and do not take their jobs as educators seriously.

The biggest problem however seems to be schools that treat the JETs (not to mention older teachers) like guests, refusing to give them any responsibility, training, and autonomy which in turn takes away their chances to feel the satisfaction that is the true perk of a career in teaching.

Schools in Japan (even at the University level) have a tendency to treat non-Japanese instructors different from regular instructors. This is a frequent subject of discussion among members of the Japanese Association of Language Teachers (JALT).

I would love to see a JET program that trains non-Japanese teachers done in conjunction with a program that sends Japanese teachers overseas. It would be perfect if non-Japanese JET teachers could count their time in Japan toward the acquisition of educator’s licenses in their own countries.

There’s more that can be done with the JET program, especially if there are a lot of motivated, education-minded young people coming over here to work… (the hard part of the equation is having Japanese schools accept the JET teachers as “real” teachers, and give them the same training and opportunities as Japanese teachers the same age.)

At the same time, I also think it would benefit JETs who don’t already do so to be proactive and try to make schools give them more responsibilities and opportunities to get a real teaching experience. It would be great for kids as well to see non-Japanese teachers as individuals and not as “assistants” to the “real” teachers.

…but thats the whole point, that their names are in katakana or spelt wrong in other publications, this might give them a chance to transcend this situation in times to come… the fact that other people and publications are doing and publishing I think, is hardly a justification for you having to do the same… for reasons given in my earlier post, you exist within a community where you have responsibilities towards your fellow man. You were wronged, yes, but whats done is done. We grow, we forgive, we build on what we have learned. Not all lessons come to us at our own will- this is a part of living among people. Ofcourse you wont take their names down… this was established in my earlier post, you can do whatever you like, true to form. Use your power to render a REAL public service, instead of applying subjective principles when in fact you are choosing to help consign fellow human beings to a life of societal outcasthood…. that in the long run might injure more people than it will serve. How is any of this information compromised by taking names down ayway? Not in an antagonistic way, but admit it dude, you are power tripping.

Oh sincere apologies there… I concede that I thought that they were in fact linked then removed on realisation that they were somehow the incorrect links.

This may not be a top read blog, but it is the first thing that comes up on a google search of their names as I said earlier. yes freedom of information, speech, thought, I have conceded, but my feeling is that there are hman principles that override these… and that I would hope in the event of a mistake, I would hope that people in my immediate community would exercise the good will to exercise these first before anything else. I hate to say that Hadnott is a different case all together, but I will… I say that because I dont know him, he is not in my immediate community/ Ive never interacted with him, so my hippie swansong of human grace does not extend as far as he… double standard yes, but… I think I, going around in circles here. So I will just say that the principle upon which I say all that I have said is that we are part of the same community and that we should exercise brother/sisterhood first. There are enough people spreading this story that are removed from us… have about as much connection to this as I have with Hadnot, so its really no skin off their nose to do so. That movement is and will go ahead without any of our help.

I don’t think he’s powertripping. This blog is simply reporting what happened in English. Trust me if you read what the Japanese newspapers and forums say about this news story (or keep an ear out in your schools) nothing said on this website is nearly as scathing as what the locals have to say.

It’s on the news anyway – in English and in Japanese. I googled the romaji names on BigGlobe and some other Japanese sites and they don’t all link to here. I think this site provides the quickest knowledge of how our fellow JETs may be faring as this case continues. I have thought about it and talked to quite a few other JETs, and none of us think that this could have simply been a misunderstanding. Why should their names be taken off the site after all the hours spent reading and listening to what a bad idea it is to be affiliated in any way with drugs while in Japan? Don’t get me wrong – if any one of us could help them I’m sure we would, but to quote the GIH:
If you’re thinking about doing drugs in Japan think again about coming.

It is such a terrible shame for this to have happened in June though for many reasons. But, you make your own decisions.

Lastly, just because this site pops up first when you google their names doesn’t mean anything. If the article were called `Two Foreign Teacher…` rather than `2 Foreign Teachers…` it would appear further down in the list of English sites covering this issue.

Hey Dave guess what…the girls got released. I hope you can write and story about this and make it a big deal like you did when they got arrested. You know your stupid blog put these girls on blast to the fullest and posting facebook links with the girls’ pictures was just wack. This will come full circle to you one day when you find yourself in a sticky situation and it just gets blown out of control by some ignorant douche bag. Your blog sucks and I hope you feel terrible for making this such a big deal before all the facts came out. “He without sin throw the first stone.” Thats a bible verse and you sure judged these girls as if you were perfect. Let me tell you something…your a speck on the face of this world just like the rest of us. You have no right to say some of the things you said especially grouping all the JETs and gaijin in the same category. Justice was served now appologize to these women!

Legalize It!-The Healing of the Naiton

i’ve been here 7 yrs now and i’m 100% certain this is not the first time antics like these have been pulled by just-outta-college-on-their-spiritual-pilgrimmage-type JETS …only the first time it was caught. and it’s not the exception to the rule. we all know that the number of JETs out there–present company excluded–that are quite honestly–a joke–is more than few and far in between. honestly.

“If the charges are found to be wrong, then I will be one of the first websites to publish the fact, as I will with any more developments in the story that are made public. I try to keep the same standards in my story reporting, whether they are about a member of the US armed forces, a teacher in Okinawa or a fisherman in the Maldives.”

The charges have indeed been found to be wrong, as indicated by the dropping of all charges. If you want to keep the articles up, please do so, but, remove all three people’s names. There is no justifiable reason for their names to be tarnished within the English media at this point.