Teachers to get heavier punishment for sex crimes

By Na Jeong-ju

The Cabinet approved a plan to extend the statute of limitations on sex crimes committed by teachers to five years from the current three years, Tuesday.

The measure was included in a revision bill on the ethics of education officials, which will be submitted to the National Assembly soon for enactment.

Under the proposal, teachers engaged in the trade of sex, sexual harassments and sexual assaults will be subject to disciplinary measures if the crimes are committed within five years.

Private schools will also be placed under a tighter watch.

Education authorities will have the right to demand a stronger punishment against private school teachers involved in sex crimes if the schools fail to deal with them “sternly.”

The education ministry has asked regional educational offices to keep such teachers away from students and give disadvantages in recruiting, repositioning and promotion.

Under related laws, teachers and school officials who received prison terms for committing sex crimes should be expelled and banned from taking education-related posts for up to 10 years. The ministry plans to strengthen regulations on punishing education officials convicted of sex crimes.

Sex crimes at schools became an issue of fiery debate here following the release of “Dogani,” a film based on a shocking true story of teachers sexually abusing physically-challenged students at a regional school.

According to a recent survey by Women’s Hotline, a civic group, sexual harassments and abuses of female middle and high school students by educators ― school teachers, hagwon instructors and private tutors ― are quite common.

One in every four or 722 of the 2,986 students polled said that their teachers have surreptitiously touched their backs and behinds. Among them, 126, or 4.6 percent, answered that they have repeatedly experienced such harassment.

Some 20.4 percent of the middle and high school students answered that their teachers have made sexual jokes and comments to them.