[Letters] Solutions to head off school violence

Lately, a number of young students have made extreme choices because of bullying and school violence. In fact, it is impossible for teachers to be completely unaware of the clashes and bullying among students. If they really didn’t know, they were either incompetent or negligent. Regardless, many of the teachers at schools have lost the authority to control the classrooms. They deplore that the children are so impolite that they don’t respect the teachers, but their authority was not eroded by rude children. Rather, the children lost direction because they no longer had adequate role models.

First of all, the system to train the teachers through teaching colleges and universities of education should be reformed as a long-term project. The students who took the multiple-choice College Scholastic Ability Test go on to a teaching college and complete the teaching requirements from their freshman year. Then, they are assigned to schools based on their college GPAs. Through the current system, it is difficult to train and educate teachers who have the authority to control the classroom and command the respect of students.

School violence cannot be prevented by the teachers alone. Schools need to accept assistance from the local community and the police. The police involvement is not for punishment but for prevention. If cops patrol the school site during the risky hours, it would discourage students from breaking the rules. It is a method the effectiveness of which has been proven through substantial research in developed countries.

by Kim Yong-se,a professor of law at Daejeon University

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