By Kim Se-jeong
All 1,366 female school teachers and public servants living in remote areas will get smart watches that will let them summon help should they be attacked, the government said, Wednesday.
The Ministry of Education also said it will install automated door locks, surveillance cameras and security bars on the windows of their residences.
The announcement was in response to a rape case last month on Heuksan Island in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in which three residents including students’ parents sexually assaulted a female teacher in her 20s.
The new measures came after the ministry inspected working conditions for female employees in the public sector. The inspection found 4,274 women worked in remote regions such as islands. Among them, 3,946 were living in employer-provided housing, and 1,366 of them were living alone without relatives or colleagues.
Only 9.2 percent of the employer-provided residences had an automated door lock system, and only 29.8 percent had security bars over windows. Only 16 percent of employer-provided housing was equipped with surveillance cameras.
The ministry said it would install automated door locks and security bars in all the residences by the end of August.
The female workers will receive smart watches by the end of this month. When a woman feels threatened she can press a button on the watch, which will send an alert message to three pre-designated police officers.
The police manual will also be changed to speed up responses to such alerts.
The ministry said it will also push for revision of the relevant law, mandating school safety measures. The current law doesn’t require schools to inspect safety conditions for their employees.
Over the long term, the ministry will establish housing that can be shared by several workers in one region, such as teachers and workers at public health centers and post offices, providing safety in numbers.
Apart from hardware changes, the ministry said it will push compulsory education to villagers on preventing sexual violence.
In last month’s case, two offenders were fathers of the victim’s students, and families of the suspects and their neighbors defended their action, petitioning the court to ask for leniency. The three were indicted on June 10 on charges of sexual assault and home intrusion.
Immediately after the incident, the ministry initially considered refraining from posting young female teachers to remote areas. But the idea was scrapped after drawing strong criticism for being shortsighted.