By Lee Hyo-sik
Schools remain anything but free from violence as more teachers and students get involved in fights despite the ban on corporal punishment within the classroom.
One middle school in western Incheon said Monday that a 13-year-old male student, identified by only his last name Kim, struck a female contract teacher in her 40s, identified by her surname Lee, with his fist several times during an after-school class on Nov. 10.
The student was looking for a friend attending Lee’s class at the time. Kim opened a window to the classroom from the hallway and stuck his head inside to have a better look for his friend. The teacher ordered him to close the window and go away. But he did not budge. Lee then came out into the hallway and slapped Kim’s face.
In response, Kim knocked Lee down by hitting her with his fist several times. Lee took a sick leave and has not returned to school since the incident.
A school official said Kim was accidentally violent at the time, adding he now deeply regrets his wrongdoing.
“He will receive psychological counseling at a state-run educational center until the winter vacation. Even though it was wrong of the teacher to slap the student, we have no plan to reprimand her because she gave him multiple warnings in advance and was physically hurt by the student.”
Additionally, a high school teacher was violent with a male student on Nov. 19, a day after the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT), after discovering the student had dyed his hair.
In a Protestant-affiliated high school in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, the teacher reprimanded the student for dyeing his hair and struck him with his fist and kicked him in front of the other students and teachers. A fellow teacher stopped him from further hitting the student, who was later sent home.
A day after the incident, his parents came to the school and strongly protested what happened to their son, arguing the teacher acted emotionally and used unnecessary excessive violence. They plan to file a complaint against the teacher with the police.
The North Jeolla Province Office of Education said it will look more closely into the incident and take appropriate measures to prevent it from happening again.