ON JULY 18, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) confirmed the tragic passing of a 23-year-old first-grade schoolteacher who was found dead in Seoul Seo2 Elementary School. With repeated concerns regarding plummeting teachers’ rights, this incident spotlights the need for education reform in South Korea. The Korean public has also been very sympathetic towards the teacher’s grievances, pushing the country to reexamine the optimal balance between protecting the teachers while ensuring a safe learning environment for the students. 

The Seoul Seo2 Elementary School incident

     The young teacher was found before school hours, so there were no student witnesses. Although the exact cause of the teacher’s death is still under investigation, the police concluded that the teacher took her own life due to the lack of evident traces of murder at the scene[1]. Even though there was no suicide note found that can be used to determine the exact cause of death, the public and the Teachers' Union in Korea speculate that the suicide was a result of incessant harassment by the parents of a student under her care. A week before the teacher’s death, there was an incident in her classroom where one student scratched another student’s forehead with a pencil. According to the Seoul Teachers’ Union, the parents of the injured child came into the principal's office to forcefully protest the harm done to the child. The union also claims that the parents verbally humiliated the now-deceased teacher and accused her of not having the qualifications to teach[2].

   Seoul Seo2 Elementary School is denying this claim and warned against any premature speculation. Yet, this incident still appears to be an epitome of the weakened teachers’ rights within the school environment: while students were able to gain more protection through the prohibition of corporal punishment in 2010, teachers have been facing increasing difficulties in disciplining students and managing complaints from parents[2]. 

An outpour of public condolence

  Recently, another elementary teacher was assaulted by his sixth-grade student to the point where the teacher was diagnosed with rib fracture. After the Seoul Seo2 Elementary School incident, this case amplified the need to protect weakened teachers’ rights. People Power Party lawmaker Chung Kyung-hee, who is a part of the parliamentary education committee, stated that 100 teachers nationwide from public schools took their own lives between 2018 and late June this year[3].  

   The cause of the alarming number appears to lie in Korea’s unspecified, overly flexible legislation regarding the law on child abuse. In an interview with The Yonsei Annals, Lee Seo-bin, an elementary teacher in Gyeonggi Province in her sixth year of teaching, agreed and stated that the root cause behind plummeting teachers’ rights stems from Korea’s law on child abuse. 

Annals: What are your personal thoughts on the Student Human Rights Ordinance that is condemned for depriving teachers’  rights? 

Lee: The crux of the problem lies within the law on child abuse. Currently, this law broadly defines child abuse as encompassing physical, psychological, and sexual violence or maltreatment that could hinder a child's development. What, then, constitutes "psychological" child abuse? If a teacher disciplines a student who has caused harm to others and the child gets upset, would this be considered emotional child abuse? With Korea’s current law, regardless of how reasonable or justified the situation may be, there is always a risk of being accused of child abuse due to the legislation’s ambiguous definition of child abuse that sets it apart from disciplining the child. Without immediate revisions to the law on child abuse, teachers are deprived of the right to provide guidance to students. Please direct more attention towards the revision of the law to support dedicated teachers and innocent students.   

Numerous public school teachers have voiced their distress and exasperation about the lack of support from school administrators and educational authorities regarding legislative issues. Approximately 300 funeral wreaths from teachers were placed at the elementary school’s main entrance and a plethora of notes containing messages of condolences from the public were affixed all over the school gates, illustrating the magnitude of attention and sorrow this case has been receiving.

   The SMOE’s investigation into this case lasted approximately two weeks and primarily consisted of a series of refutations of rumors surrounding the Seoul Seo2 Elementary School’s administration alongside acknowledgement of conflicts with parents. According to the SMOE’s official announcement, the deceased teacher did face humiliation, verbal abuse, and excessive parental complaints. This harassment reportedly intensified when the teacher’s phone number was accidentally released during the process of resolving the pencil incident. This release resulted in excessive parental complaints through personal contact, even outside of work hours[4]. The Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) expressed the mental burden of having to answer the calls and messages from students’ parents outside of work hours. The contents of such messages were not limited to details about students but extended to that of the teachers’ personal lives as well[4]. This again reinforces the question of whether schoolteachers even have a justified authority and responsibility to the students outside the school grounds. 

The questionable effects of the Student Human Rights Ordinance

   The KTU also directly pointed at Korea’s Student Human Rights Ordinance as one of the primary causes of dwindling teacher authority. This ordinance punishes, by law, the school board if the teacher discriminates against the student and violates his or her human rights. This ordinance was especially implemented with the intention to protect homosexual and pregnant students. Despite enabling greater self-expression for students, the Student Human Rights Ordinance now stands as a double-edged sword. Teachers first argue that this law brings consequential backlashes, such as conflict between students and teachers. Some teachers worry that the ordinance will even hinder student development and cause perfunctory behavioral and academic performances[4].

   Thus, to address such issues, teachers took to the streets to demand legislative reforms that would augment the protection of teachers from harsh working environments, excessive parental complaints, and physical and verbal abuse from students. A fellow teacher named Yoon Mi-sook expressed grievances on how teachers are suffering from incessant, unjust reports on child abuse and how Korean child abuse laws are excessively applied on school grounds. Yoon stated that everything that undermines a child’s happiness is considered child abuse, leaving the teachers powerless in the classroom as they cannot impose appropriate regulations and disciplinary measures on problematic students to curb their misbehavior[5]. In an attempt to ensure teachers’ rights in Korea, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced a new student guidance plan to be implemented from September where teachers are now able to confiscate students’ phones and isolate students if they are disruptive in class[6]. Teachers will also be authorized to use physical force when faced with situations in which they must restrain unruly students[1].

Slow investigation in process

   The SMOE proclaimed to actively collaborate with the police investigation and carry out a comprehensive and extensive inquiry into educators and even stated that the office intends to conduct a comprehensive survey involving all of the city's teachers. Unfortunately, the country’s effort is still not reflected in its investigation process. The police have been accused of being superficial for their prolonged process of investigation and their ironically shallow results. The police still have not confiscated the now-deceased teacher’s cellphone and laptop, which are both imperative sources of evidence to unravel the workload, harassment, and the mental state of the teacher right before her suicide[7]. 

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   The ruling bureaucracy and authorities appear as if they are overly focused on simply responding to the public’s scorching anger instead of supporting proper investigation, amending legislation, and implementing other countermeasures to ensure stronger protection for teachers in the future. While MOE is in the process of drawing up additional legislations to offset the insufficiencies of the Student Human Rights Ordinance, amending not only this law but the uncertain wording of the law on child abuse remains a practical and pivotal step towards protecting teachers and safeguarding the quality of education that Korean students will be receiving.

[1] Yonhap News Agency

[2] Korea JoongAng Daily

[3] KBS

[4] The Korea Times

[5] CBS

[6] SBS

[7] The Hankyoreh