School violence still an issue at hagwon
Ms. Hwang’s eighth-grade son walks with crutches and is currently undergoing psychotherapy, both the result of an incident last April in which another student pummeled him at his hagwon, a private cram school, in Mapo District, Seoul.One of the boy’s epiphysial plates was injured and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.
“Now his classmates call him disabled,” Hwang added.
According to the record from the school committee formed to handle the case, the assailant punched and kicked Hwang’s son several times in the hallway and then beat him again outside the hagwon later that day.
A passing vehicle also ran over the victim’s foot at the time.
Korean students typically spend time taking extra courses at hagwon after regular school hours, yet the central government has no policy in effect to prevent violence at those institutions.
Many critics of a law enacted in 2004 to prevent school violence argue that it is inefficient in that it defines violence strictly as that occurring in and outside of school, while all current policies covering school violence only focus on incidents occurring inside.
“The number of cases of violence occurring in hagwon is lower than in schools, but it is a more difficult problem to solve,” said Chung Jae-young, an associate professor in the department of education at Ewha Womans University.
The Ministry of Education currently has no measures to deal with violence at hagwon, and when it announced a plan last December detailing how to handle and prevent school violence, there were no stipulations regarding private academies. “It’s difficult to mandate CCTV in hagwon, for instance, because hagwon are not public institutes,” a ministry official said.
Compared to regular schools, students at hagwon have a higher risk of being engaged in conflict simply because they spend so much time there.
“While students can mitigate stress and violent behavior through different activities at [regular] school, at hagwon the stress over improving their grades is amplified,” said Lee Min-hui, a professor in the department of child and youth welfare at Pyeongtaek University.
Contrary to regular school, private academies are not required to have an instructor who manages student affairs, which makes it difficult for authorities there to deal with violence.
Similarly, officials at some private cram schools often decline to become involved in violence cases, fearing it would have a negative influence on student enrollment.
When Hwang visited her son’s hagwon to find a witness following the incident, the staff at the school warned her they would call the police if she kept disturbing them.
When asked about such lax measures, an official at the academy said they reacted the way they did because she was interrupting students taking lectures there.
By current law, if violence occurs between students who attend different schools, then each school must form a joint committee to deal with the case. So with students from numerous schools all at one hagwon, it becomes more complicated to handle violence incidents.
Lee Ho-suk, a representative with School Violence Prevention Support Center, said private cram academies should immediately inform students’ family and schools when violence happens between students.
“A lax response could lead to a police investigation,” Lee added.
An official from the Korea Association of Hagwon added that it is difficult to stop conflict from happening because many students are lectured in one place.
“We know how serious the situation is, and many hagwon are trying to figure out solutions, like having an association with police,” the official said.
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, meanwhile, has its own measures in place to prevent violence at private cram schools, and any private cram school that neglects to properly manage its pupils could face administrative discipline.
Under what’s known here as the Hagwon Law, regional education offices must hold seminars for relevant representatives.
BY SHIN JIN [nam.yoonseo@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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