By Kim Bo-eun
The local government, education authorities and parents who lost their children in the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy have agreed to move the memorial space from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to a new venue.
They held a ceremony at a joint memorial altar in Ansan, Monday. The agreement came after months of conflict between the involved parties.
After most of the high school’s second grade class were killed in the ferry sinking during a school trip to Jeju Island in April 2014, 10 classrooms in the school remained as memorial places. The classrooms have been preserved as they were before the disaster occurred, only with the addition of messages and gifts from visitors paying their respects to the victims.
Instead of conserving the actual classrooms, the parties reached an agreement to build a separate facility near the school to remember the tragedy and commemorate the victims.
Construction of the facility is slated to be completed by September 2018. Until then, the desks, chairs and other equipment in the classrooms will be temporarily housed in an annex of the Ansan Office of Education.
Besides setting up and managing the new facility, the parties also agreed to host a memorial ceremony every year and build a commemorative sculpture on the school’s grounds.
Gyeonggi Provincial Government and the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education (GPOE) have set aside 9 billion won to construct the facility and Ansan City is set to provide administrative support.
“We hope that all those involved do not forget today’s agreement and promises, and remember the lesson learned from the Sewol disaster,” a GPOE official said.
The victims’ parents had been at odds with the parents of other students currently attending the school over the issue. The former had been requesting for the memorial classrooms to be preserved, while the latter claimed the school needs to use them again, due to the lack of space for current students.
Meetings to resolve the issue began on Feb. 28, mediated by the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace. Nine meetings took place over 65 days, and the agreement was reached in a final meeting May 2.
To keep the memorial classrooms and prepare spaces for new students at the same time, the school has been using computer rooms, music rooms and libraries as temporary homerooms since the new school year started in March. It moved the principal’s office to a container outside the school building.