Teachers demoralized by indiscriminate reporting of child abuse

A woman mourns at a memorial altar in Seoul's Seocho District, Monday, for an elementary school teacher who took her own life inside her classroom on July 18. Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

• Published Jul 24, 2023 4:35 PM KST
• Updated Jul 25, 2023 4:15 PM KST

President orders guidelines to protect teachers' rights, enhance their authority

By Jun Ji-hye

Teachers across the country have been suffering from increasing accusations of child abuse filed by parents or students against them.

Teachers and unions said Monday that most of these cases resulted from their attempts to guide students, citing an example of one teacher who was accused of child abuse after grabbing the arms of a pupil to stop a fight with a classmate.

Once a child abuse report is filed, a teacher faces months of being investigated by police and prosecutors until they are cleared of suspicion. This makes them lose confidence considerably, with some of them giving up guiding students or leaving schools altogether.

The suffering of teachers came to the fore following the recent death of an elementary school teacher in Seoul's affluent Seocho District who took her own life inside her classroom on July 18.

Although the police are continuing their investigation into the death of the teacher in her 20s, it has been speculated in online communities that she had a tough time due to vocal complaints from parents of some of her students.

Also making headlines were incidents where an elementary school boy in sixth grade in Seoul's Yangcheon District and another elementary school boy in third grade in Busan assaulted their respective teacher last month, causing them to require three weeks of medical treatment.

Teachers say they have been unable to protect themselves from demanding parents or violent students due mainly to the current special law against child abuse and the student human rights ordinance.

The special law stipulates that anyone can report to the police when they are aware of or suspect child abuse. Teachers say when parents or students abuse this law, there is nothing more they can do.

The student human rights ordinance, which was enacted in 2010 to view each student as an individual human being rather than subject of control, bans corporal punishment and any discrimination by teachers. Although the ordinance has been praised for its good intention, it also faced criticism for only emphasizing students' human rights, while neglecting teachers' rights.

“One day, one of my students was noisy in class. I told him to be quiet, because he was disturbing other students,” said a 40-year-old teacher in Yangju District, Gyeonggi Province. “The next day, his parents reported me to the police for emotionally abusing their child. They said I humiliated their child in front of other students.”

The teacher, who was cleared of suspicion after a two-month investigation, participated in a rally on Saturday over the death of the elementary school teacher.

“Many teachers across the country participated in the rally voluntarily as all of us have had similar experiences to what the young teacher suffered,” she said. “The special law against child abuse should be amended in a way to better protect teachers' rights.”

According to a teachers' union in Gyeonggi Province, 1,252 child abuse reports have been made against teachers over the last five years, and among them, 676, or 53.9 percent, were dropped.

The ratio of the dropped cases of the entire child abuse accusations was only 14.9 percent during the same period. This showed accusations against teachers were filed quite indiscriminately.

Amid growing controversy, President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the Ministry of Education to come up with comprehensive guidelines at the earliest possible date to protect teachers' rights and enhance their authority in classrooms.

“The government should also consult with the ruling party and local governments to revise the irrational ordinance that has infringed on teachers' rights,” Yoon was quoted as saying by his spokesman Lee Do-woon, Monday, apparently making a reference to the student human rights ordinance.

In response, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said his ministry will work to draw up the guidelines by August and push to amend the ordinance.

“We will work to prevent the infringement of teachers' rights to teach as well as other students' rights to learn,” Lee said during his meeting with teachers' unions at the Federation of Korean Trade Unions building.