A public elementary school teacher in eastern Japan told a fourth grader to jump out of a third-floor classroom window last week, prompting the boy to stay away from school, a local education committee said Tuesday.

"Jump out the window," and, "Do not come here from tomorrow," the homeroom teacher in his 40s told the boy Wednesday at Yamaguchi Elementary School in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, the committee said. The teacher also told the other children in the homeroom class, "Let's have fun with 33 members from tomorrow," it added.

The incident came to light after mothers of some of the children reported the teacher's words to the school. The city's education committee is now considering penalizing the teacher.

An investigation by the school has found that the teacher kicked the same boy in the back in April as a form of corporal punishment.

The teacher told the school that he made the remarks after a disturbance broke out in the class. He admitted that his words were inappropriate and apologized to the boy and his guardians.

"It is truly regrettable. We will do our utmost to prevent similar incidents," said Kazutaka Tanaka, the chief of the committee's school education department.

Another elementary school teacher in Saitama Prefecture was penalized with a pay cut last month for inflicting corporal punishment on three students that left one of them with bruises.

In another recent incident, a teacher at a public elementary school in Osaka was suspended from work for three months for going to the home of one of his students at night while drunk and beating him.