Parent sentenced to prison for exam paper theft

Hankookilbo

A parent who repeatedly broke into a high school to steal exam papers has been sentenced to prison, while a contract teacher and a school administrator who assisted in covering up the scheme also received jail terms. The student who used the stolen exams was handed a suspended prison sentence.

The Andong branch of the Daegu District Court handed down the rulings on Wednesday, finding the defendants guilty of obstruction of business, special larceny and nighttime trespassing.

The parent, identified only as A, 48, was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. The teacher, B, 32, was sentenced to five years in prison, and must forfeit 31.5 million ($24,000) won in illicit gains.

The school administrator, identified as C, 38, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, while the student, D, 19, received a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years.

According to the court, A trespassed at a high school in Andong 11 times, starting in 2023. Working with the student’s former homeroom teacher, the parent improperly removed and photographed exam papers before giving them to the student. The scheme unraveled at 1:20 a.m. on July 4 last year, when the school’s security system malfunctioned and triggered an alarm as they attempted to break in.

The teacher, identified as B, became acquainted with the parent through illegal private tutoring in 2020, and later served as the student’s homeroom teacher at their high school. They remained in touch after B’s contract ended and she transferred to a different school in Gyeonggi Province.

B exploited the fact that her fingerprint access to the teachers’ office had not been revoked, allowing her to enter the school repeatedly. Exam papers were removed from storage or photographed on a mobile phone and delivered to A. In return, A paid B a total of 31.5 million won across 16 transactions.

C, the school’s chief administrator, allowed the parent and the teacher to enter the premises by leaving doors unlocked or providing passwords and keys, and deleted CCTV footage.

Using the leaked exam papers, the student, identified as D, maintained top rank at the school throughout all three years of high school. After the fraud came to light, the school convened its Academic Performance Management Committee and Student Discipline Committee, voided all of D’s grades and expelled them.

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Presiding Judge Son Young-eon said the crimes “undermined public trust in the fairness and transparency of the public education system,” adding that they “seriously infringed on students’ legitimate right to learn and to be evaluated fairly.” He said the case left “deep frustration and anger” among students and parents.

At the sentencing hearing in November, prosecutors sought eight years in prison for A and seven years for B, along with forfeiture of the 31.5 million won. They also requested three years in prison for C and a juvenile sentence of two to three years for D.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.