A trio of feisty public schoolgirls have stirred up a ruckus after they attacked the police officer who told off two of them for riding together on the same bicycle, according to Shukan Post (5/2).

The brouhaha broke out in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, on the afternoon of April 12, after the police officer grabbed one of the girls and her two friends retaliated, kicking and spitting at the lawman.

One of the girls called her buddies and asked them to rush to the scene to help, but the cop also called in reinforcements. It eventually took 10 male officers and five police cars to quell the 14-year-old trio.

One of the girls was thrown into a cop car, but she punched and kicked the interior before making a break for freedom through the open window of the passenger side door. She was quickly recaptured and slapped in handcuffs –- once an almost unthinkable treatment for a minor in Japan -- so she couldn't get away.

The three girls, who can't be legally named as they are minors, are referred to by Shukan Post as Girl A, Girl B and Girl C. Girls A and B stood out for their distinctive bleached hairdos, while Girl C's locks were black.

"When they started at junior high, B and C both dyed their hair, used to smoke and do whatever they wanted to, but the teachers never said a word," one student from the school the girls are enrolled in tells Shukan Post, noting that neither B or C attended class in a long time. "B and C haven't come to school since the end of first year."

Girl A, meanwhile, regularly turned up at her school, but that didn't necessarily mean she was showing up for class.

"She had a weird haircut and piercings in her nose and mouth. Teachers would tell her off, but she just ignored them, so they wouldn't let her in their classes and taught her separately in a room on her own," the student says. "Normally, the teachers were really strict about enforcing school rules, like how high the hems on girls' skirts could be and stuff, but with (Girl A), they just kept quiet even though she was doing everything wrong."

Even though Girl A was going to school, she would finish and meet up with Girl B and Girl C and the three would regularly roam the streets together.

Another classmate says the three schoolgirls were simply misunderstood.

"Even though they all looked pretty wild, they never bullied or threatened anyone and were basically not bad girls. Their problem was that the teachers judged them on their looks and made life hard for them. I guess it would've been tough for them to keep turning up at school," the classmate says. "Sometimes they turned up for school events like the sports day and stuff, but they always looked really sad and lonely."

Shinsaku Noju, head of the NPO Support Center for Overcoming Juvenile Delinquency, says the schoolgirls' attack on the cops was probably a call for help.

"Lots of kids who fall into delinquency are actually sending a message to parents and teachers that they need a bit more attention. If teachers encounter rebellion, it's often a sign they need to put a bit more time into a child," Noju tells Shukan Post. "But if parents or teachers ignore the kids and let them do whatever they want, the rebelliousness just escalates as the kids turn to increasingly noticeable behavior in an attempt to get someone to pay some attention to them." (By Ryann Connell)