Noto Earthquake-hit High School Starts 3rd Term at Community Center; Students, Guardians Made Choice to Stay in Home City of Wajima

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:00 JST, January 7, 2025

Monzen High School in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, held its third term opening ceremony on Tuesday at a community center in the city. The buildings of the school were found to be unusable due to last year’s earthquake in the area.

The community center in the Monzen district of the city will serve as a facility for the school in the meantime, with students having classes there, until a temporary school building is completed in autumn of this year.

According to the prefectural board of education, research conducted late last year found that all seven pile foundations that support the school building were distorted.

Initially, classes were scheduled to be held at Shika High School, another prefectural high school in Ishikawa Prefecture that is about 30 kilometers away from Monzen High School.

But due to the desires of the students and their parents and guardians, a decision was made to hold classes at the community center, which is close to the high school.

At the high school’s third term opening ceremony on Tuesday, Principal Satoshi Nakazawa told the 99 students in attendance, “We must use this facility carefully with a sense of gratitude.”

After the ceremony, the students carried chairs and desks that they used for school into the community center.