‘Schools are vulnerable to crimes’

Schools are vulnerable to crimes as was seen in an incident that occurred at a school in southern Seoul on Sept. 28, sources said Tuesday.

An 18-year-old high school dropout broke into an elementary school classroom in Socho-gu, southern Seoul, at around 11:50 am, brandishing a shovel and an imitation gun injured six children.

One of the victims had his chin stitched for cuts sustained from the savage attack and a second victim suffered a fractured arm.

According to insider sources, CCTVs installed at various vantage points within the vicinity of the school took at least three video recordings of the offender, surnamed Kim. This notwithstanding, no attempts were made to stop Kim from entering the school’s perimeter.

Given that there are no on-call personnel to conduct real-time monitoring of the scores of CCTVs installed in nearly all the elementary, middle and high schools across the country, questions are being asked about the ultimate utility of these devices.

According to the education ministry, the number of schools equipped with CCTVs totals 11,360, 97.6 percent of total schools in the country.

An education ministry official said: “At night, private businesses or contract workers are tasked with guarding schools. But in daytime, there are no personnel assigned to do such a job.”