By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

An elementary school student struck his female teacher in front of other students and the school seemingly attempted to cover up the incident.

On May 22, a 12-year-old student at Sinjeong Elementary School in western Seoul punched his teacher in the face with his fist several times in front of a group of classmates, according to witnesses and parents. The teacher, 32, received injuries around her mouth and had to have several stitches.

The incident began following a survey on school bullying with two boys writing obscene comments about the teacher on their survey sheets. After reading the comments, the teacher approached the two students and reprimanded them during clean up time after class.

As they showed no signs of apologizing, the teacher ordered the two students to prostrate themselves on the classroom floor. They disobeyed her so she tried to hit one of them with a rod. One of the students grabbed her arm and punched her.

Apparently shocked by the incident, the teacher could not attend classes over the next several days.

However, the school is denying the assault. School principal Lee Soon-kwon told reporters that the teacher received the injury accidentally in the process of the student attempting to block himself from being struck with the yardstick. He said the school reported the incident to the regional education office.

Despite the denial, the school plans to transfer the two students to other schools at the request of their parents.

Asked why the students insulted their teacher on the survey papers, Lee said he could not ask them, as they are now too depressed to answer questions about the incident.

``They are in their adolescent period and very sensitive to stress and have difficulty controlling themselves. They feel very guilty and their parents have already apologized to the teacher,’’ he said.

To find out exactly what happened at the class, the Korean Federation of Teachers' Association is investigating the case and plans to announce an official statement later.

``The number of assaults against teachers has doubled over the last five years. Apart from this case, there are no proper penalties against students, so we will ask the National Assembly to set up a law to protect the education activities of teachers,’’ said Kim Dong-seok, a spokesperson for the teachers’ association.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr