 Students and their parents walk by policemen standing in front of the school gate of Daewon Middle School in Gwangjin-gu, Monday, during a graduation ceremony. / Korea Times photo by Kim Ju-young |
By Han Sang-hee
Graduation is in full swing and not just in a festive, teary mood of transition, but with a rather restrictive and intense twist.
Following the concerns of excessive abusive behavior, including forced nudity and tearing school uniforms, policemen are patrolling school grounds and the surrounding areas to combat any wrongdoing.
Schools in and around Seoul have been holding their annual graduation ceremonies for the past week, and so far there have been no reports of any serious pranks or accidents.
Yet it all came at the cost of the celebratory mood — students, parents and teachers are complaining that the graduation ceremonies are being constrained by the police force.
On Thursday morning, Aju middle school in Jamsil, southern Seoul, was crowded with parents, students, vendors with flowers, coffee and cotton candy and, of course, policemen to monitor the graduation ceremony. A police car was parked right next to the front gate of the school, putting a damper on the joyous moment, but this, according to Lieutenant Choi Kang-sul, was a precaution.
“We have been concentrating on areas around schools for the past week. I understand parents and the students think it’s going a bit overboard and killing the mood, but we have to make sure nobody gets hurt and everything goes smoothly,” he said.
Choi also warned that just in case some students hide and plan their pranks in secret, there were officers in plain clothes walking around the area as well. The ceremony maintained a rather solemn mood and it did seem that all the fuss about graduation did not allow the students to relax.
Scary or boring
“It was a bit weird to find a police car right next to the vendors and I also heard that there were policemen in ordinary clothes walking around the school. That’s kind of scary,” Kwon Min-seok, a parent, said walking into the auditorium where the ceremony was being held.
Safety is important, but for some teachers, all of this is more than necessary.
“All of the teachers gathered in groups and had to patrol one to two hours before the actual graduation. We first thought it would take a handful of teachers, but the school told us that the entire faculty had to do it, so we did,” a teacher from nearby Chungshin Girls’ Middle School said.
Both schools went through the students’ bags to check if they were carrying anything inappropriate like eggs or flour. Under the ministry’s suggestion to make the ceremony last longer, they also gave out everyone’s certificate one by one.
“The ceremony was a bit boring because we had to wait a long time. And seeing police around the school isn’t really an exciting thing either,” said Kim Mi-young, 16, a student of Chungshin.
Some parents, however, took sides with having police guarding the school gates.
“I think it’s inevitable. Police should not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of graduation, but if it’s for their safety, I guess we have to accept that,” said Moon Su-ja, a mother whose son was graduating at Aju.
Another mother who wanted to be identified by her surname Lee and whose older daughter came home covered in flour after last year’s ceremony at Chungshin, preferred taking some precautions.
“It’s my second time here and I was actually worried the same thing would happen this year. I think having maybe a couple of police officers or even a police car would help students behave somewhat,” she said.
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