By Lee Kyung-min
Parents at Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, have agreed to move the belongings of students who died in the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol from 10 classrooms to a temporary space.
At a meeting mediated by the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace, parents and school authorities reached an agreement to move the belongings of the deceased students to a temporary memorial space at the Ansan Office of Education on April 16. The space will be kept until the Gyeonggi Office of Education (GOE) builds a memorial park for the victims by 2019.
“We have all understood the need to give other students at the school a place to learn while still finding a proper way to commemorate the victims,” one of the parents said.
Although the victims’ families asked that the belongings be kept there until late July, when the sunken ferry is slated to be recovered, other parents rejected this.
“We held numerous discussions to work out our differences and reach a decision that reflects all parties involved,” the parent added. “We will keep an open mind to listen to others’ opinions.”
The bereaved families will remove some of the belongings of the 250 students including letters, clothing and flowers, with the remaining objects slated to be moved later.
The agreement ends a months-long conflict between parents who have been split over whether to remove the belongings to make room for new students.
The school is a two-story building, but has five classrooms occupied by memorials on each floor. It would need eight more classrooms to accommodate all its new students if it maintained the 10 memorial classrooms.
Meanwhile, the education office expressed its commitment to complete the construction of the memorial center in three years as promised.
“As we promised last November, we will be able to complete the construction. Our office supports the hard-earned decision made through talks,” an official said.
With the tentative name Democratic Citizen Education Center, the authority plans to build a five-story building near the school on state property.
The center will commemorate the victims and provide visitors with a chance to learn from the tragedy, so as not to repeat history, according to the official.
The parents and education authorities plan to hold further discussions on building a commemorative sculpture near the school. Their next meeting is scheduled for March 15.
The Sewol sank off the island of Jindo on April 16, 2014, claiming more than 300 lives, most of them Danwon students on a field trip.