The girl, who enrolled in an unidentified elementary school in Kyoto in spring 1999, was bullied at school and stopped attending from the third term of third grade, the petition said.

While ADHD has been associated with some of the disorderly classroom problems that have made national headlines in recent years, parents whose children have the disorder seldom seek a legal remedy to what they feel is an infringement of the rights of their kids to receive a proper education.

Taku Komatsu, a lawyer who represents the girl's family in the petition, said he hopes the case prompts school authorities to look into the individual needs of each student.

"With a little support from people around her, the girl is capable of adapting to normal social life," Komatsu said.

According to Komatsu, the Kyoto woman's daughter was diagnosed with delayed development when she was 8 months old. She has since been diagnosed with ADHD and other learning disabilities, including verbal and attentive skill shortcomings.

In 1997, the girl enrolled in a specialized institution for disabled children to treat her condition, and in fall 1998, medical experts and the Kyoto municipal board of education determined that she had made sufficient progress for enrollment in a normal elementary school.

The mother then met with the principal of the elementary school she was planning to enroll her daughter in and asked the school to give her special consideration. The principal agreed to make special arrangements, including letting the girl sit in the front row of her class, Komatsu said.

By the time the girl enrolled in the school in spring 1999, the principal had been replaced and, according to Komatsu, none of the arrangements was honored by the new principal.

The mother met with the new principal and the daughter's teacher, but they refused to budge, Komatsu said.

The education ministry defines ADHD as a "behavioral disorder" characterized by a level of inattentiveness, compulsiveness and hyperactivity disproportionate to the age of a child.

ADHD affects 2.5 percent of elementary and junior high school students in Japan, or roughly one in every classroom, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the education ministry.

Children with ADHD are "friendly to anyone" but prone to lose their tempers while they are very young. When they reach school age, they usually do not listen to what others tell them. In school, they tend to become restless and cannot sit still, according to ADHD experts.

The experts say that while all children will from time to time become inattentive, impulsive and overly active, in the case of ADHD, these behaviors become the rule, not the exception.

The Japan Times: May 15, 2003
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