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LEAD: High school baseball player arrested over obscene act
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MAEBASHI, Japan, July 31 Kyodo
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(EDS: UPDATING)
A member of a high school baseball team scheduled to compete in
this summer's national high school baseball tournament at Koshien
Stadium was arrested Thursday on suspicion of sexually harassing a
female high school student, police said.
In the face of the scandal, Noboru Takahashi, principal of Kiryu
Daiichi High School in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, told a press
conference, ''I hope our team will be able to participate in the
tournament,'' expressing the school's intention not to withdraw.
The 16-year-old second grader at the private high school is
believed to have come up behind the victim, also 16, covered her
mouth with his hand and touched her body at around 9 p.m. on July 22
on a street in Ota, according to the investigation.
The suspect is not a regular member of the baseball team,
according to the school.
While school baseball teams in Japan sometimes refrain from
taking part in competitions as a way to take collective
responsibility if any of their members are involved in a scandal, it
has been questioned whether such a practice serves any educational
purpose.
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