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| Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announces reinforced measures to tackle school bullying at the government complex in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
Students with records of committing school bullying will face penalties in the university admissions process, while victims' consent will become mandatory in order to clear records of perpetrators' crimes, the government announced, Wednesday.
Victims will also be better protected and receive more support when recovering with the help of school violence prevention and support centers, which will consist of school police officers, legal experts and psychological counselors.
The government held a meeting with the school violence prevention committee, which is presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Wednesday, and passed a set of comprehensive plans to tackle bullying.
The measures come as prosecutor-turned-lawyer Chung Sun-sin, who was named the new chief of the National Office of Investigation stepped down a day after his appointment on Feb. 24. Chung was attacked by controversial reports that stated that his son, currently attending Seoul National University, bullied his peers in high school in 2017.
The Netflix hit series "The Glory" also raised public consensus on enforced punishment of school violence perpetrators.
According to the new measures, schools will retain the records of school bullies for an extended period of four years after offenders graduate, allowing universities to take bullying records into account during the admissions process, starting next year.
Since February, the education ministry has required all schools to retain bullying records for two years after perpetrators graduate in order to enhance safety in classrooms. In the past, the bullying records of students could be removed after graduation.
Previously, universities only took school bullying records into account for rolling admissions, which assess students based on records and grades. However, its weighting on the test-based regular admission system was criticized for being insignificant.
Thus, the government will recommend universities voluntarily and more heavily weigh applicants' school violence records in their admission process next year and require universities to reflect student records in all entrance types from the year after.
Also, victims will be granted more safety in classrooms by being immediately separated from offenders for an extended period of seven days.
In the past, in identified cases of school violence, victims and perpetrators were separated for three days, which was criticized as being ineffective, especially if the separation period started on Friday and ended over the weekend.
Also, school principals will be able to suspend perpetrators or separate them from victims by moving them to a different class upon the victim's request.
The measures will also reinforce follow-up support measures for victims.
In 2022, Korea saw 62,052 cases of school violence across the country, which is a 68.8 percent jump from 2019's figure of 42,706.
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