Teachers lose control of classrooms as students, parents weaponize abuse laws

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Teachers lose control of classrooms as students, parents weaponize abuse laws

A middle school student in Hongseong, South Chungcheong, watching TikTok videos while lying beneath a blackboard while a teacher continue with her class in August 2022. [TIKTOK SCREEN CAPTURE]

A middle school student in Hongseong, South Chungcheong, watching TikTok videos while lying beneath a blackboard while a teacher continue with her class in August 2022. [TIKTOK SCREEN CAPTURE]

A teacher on trial for scolding rowdy students who were disrupting her class has been acquitted.  
 
The Ulsan District Court on May 21concluded that the teacher did not commit child abuse.  
 
The elementary school teacher in Ulsan was indicted in 2021 on 15 counts of inflicting emotional abuse on five students, including an incident in which she asked a student to stand in front of the class and confess his wrongdoing, such as repeatedly stabbing a classmate’s arm with a pencil. 
 
She was also accused of making abusive statements such as, “I wish I could beat you with a stick,” and, “Do your parents leave you as you are when you throw a tantrum?”  
 
However, the judge ruled that while the method of discipline had been inappropriate and somewhat excessive, the court could not conclude it was intentional emotional abuse.  
 
This was just the latest case of parents accusing teachers of abusing their children in the course of disciplining them. Even expelling a problematic student from class is considered a violation of students’ rights.  
 
Many teachers argue that their rights have been trampled upon, whereas students’ rights have been elevated as absolute, allowing students to act with impunity.  
 
According to the Education Ministry, the annual number of reported cases of students violating the rights of their teachers in class has once again surpassed 2,000.  
 
The number fell to 1,197 in 2020 as many schools converted to remote classes due to Covid-19. However, the number climbed to 2,269 in 2021 and there were 1,596 reported violations in the first half of last year alone.  
 
If an equal number of reports were filed in the second half, the total number could exceed 3,000.  
 
Cases include not only disrupting class but harassment, mockery, verbal abuse and even physical abuse of teachers by students.  
 
“Students today don’t listen to teachers, unlike in the past,” said a 50-year-old teacher with 20 years of experience. “I can feel there are a lot of students that look down on teachers.”
 
The teacher said with no means to control students, all teachers can do is call the parents and plead.  
 
“Honestly, I want to tell people hoping to become teachers not to become one,” the teacher said.  
 
“Children today scare me,” said a 41-year-old high school teacher of 12 years, identified by her family name of Park.  
 
She said she has feared having one-on-one conversations with her students for several years.  
 
“Some people asked how I could be so as a teacher, but I try to have as little contact with children as possible unless it is in class or if the counseling is necessary,” Park said. “It’s been a while since respect for and trust in teachers have collapsed.”  
 
The teacher, now in her 40s, said she was a different person six years ago as she felt strongly for her students, even when her job was hard and she was buried in work.  
 
“I considered the teaching profession attractive as teachers put students on a path for a better life and can plant milestones in the most important periods of students' lives,” Park said. “I believed that even if they took the wrong path, they could always return.”
 
However, it all changed in 2017 when she received an evaluation from her students that made fun of her physique, causing sexual shame.  
 
“The fact that it wasn’t just one or two students but five or six shocked me,” Park said.  
 
Hoping to keep it from blowing up, Park called the students one by one and talked to them.  
 
However, the mockery only got worse with one student even leaving a drawing of certain parts of her body on her table.  
 
“Even when I expressed my frustration and tried to take a stern stance, the students kept laughing,” Park said. “I felt helpless in realizing that I didn’t have any means to control the students.”  
 
The students’ rights movement started in the second half of the 1990s.  
 
It further gained momentum when the Kim Dae-jung administration announced the students’ charter in 2002, which included protections against not only physical violence but also psychological violence, including fear and oppression.  
 
The charter also upheld the students’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression.
 
This was a turnaround from the past when teachers commonly practiced corporal punishment, with some educators using mops, brooms and even baseball bats.  
 
In 1983, a student died after being beaten by a teacher for doodling.  
 
Corporal punishment was completely banned in schools in 2010, with violating teachers immediately facing criminal and civil lawsuits.
 
The sometimes deadly physical abuse of students continued, however. In 2014 a high school student collapsed 13 hours after being rammed into a wall by a teacher for being late to school.  
 
The student was hospitalized and died 22 days later.  
 
By law, a teacher who commits corporal punishment faces up to five years in jail and a fine of 50 million won ($37,700).  
 
However, in recent years, roles have reversed as more students grow disrespectful of their teachers.  
 
The issue of out-of-control students garnered national attention when photos emerged last year of a middle school student in Hongseong, South Chungcheong, lying beneath a blackboard and watching TikTok videos while a teacher continued with her class.  
 
In the same school, another student had his shirt off.  
 
These were relatively mild cases.  
 
On May 19, a first-year high school student in Pyeongtaek who was in an earlier physical altercation with another student beat up a teacher who tried to stop him from leaving school.  
 
The teacher was hospitalized after suffering an injury that would take her 12 weeks to recover from.  
 
Last month, a second-year high school student was being counseled by his teacher on a fight with another student when he attacked the teacher, beating her with an umbrella.
 
He also threw a sharp object at the school principal while wandering the hallway.  
 
It’s not just high school students who are out of control, either.
 
In June last year, a sixth grader wielded a double-edged saw while cursing at his teacher, who was intervening in a fight.  
 
Despite the harm that teachers face as their rights crumble, many educators face being sued by parents even if their disciplinary actions are justified.
 
In December last year, a teacher in Gunsan, North Jeolla, was sued by the parents of a middle school student when, in fact, it was the student who beat the teacher's face.  
 
The incident occurred when the teacher scolded the student, who barged into her ongoing class and called out to a friend.  
 
However, the parents of the student sued the teacher for emotional abuse.  
 
The parents claimed that despite their son immediately leaving her classroom, the teacher verbally attacked their son in the hallway.  
 
They also argued that the teacher grabbed him by his collar.  
  
In one case that the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association (KFTA) cited a study published on May 10, the parents of a student reported a teacher for child abuse when the teacher grabbed the wrist of the ill-behaved student.  
 
The prosecutors’ office dropped the case.  
 
Another teacher, who referred a student who cursed while being disciplined to a special education program for violent students, was threatened by the parents, who claimed they would tip off news stations to the teacher's "abuse." The parents falsely claimed that the teacher struck the student with a mobile phone.  
 
According to the KFTA, among the 513 complaints that the teachers reported to the teachers’ advocacy organization, nearly half, or 238, were regarding parents of the students.  
 
That far exceeds the 64 regarding students themselves.  
 
“There is a surge in unreasonable reports of child abuse against teachers as the parents themselves don’t have to face the consequences,” said a KFTA official. “As such, teachers avoid giving guidance counseling.”  
  
Song Ki-chang, emeritus professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, who specializes in education, said teachers currently must shoulder the entire burden of lawsuits filed against them by parents.  
 
“Who would be willing to say things that students don’t want to hear if they have to shoulder the burden alone in appointing a lawyer and attending court while still managing class?” Professor Song said.  
 
A 29-year-old teacher said she felt frustrated by students playing crude jokes like hiding her personal belonging. Yet she said she couldn’t say anything.
 
“Since I was young, I always dreamt of becoming a teacher and felt as though I had the whole world to myself when I got into an education university,” the teacher said. “But in reality, we are treated far worse than a hagwon lecturer,” she said, referring to private cram schools.  
 
“It’s difficult to find any respect or consideration from students, and now I feel like an office worker buried in paperwork,” the teacher said.  
 
As a result, teacher job satisfaction has dropped sharply.  
 
A survey of 6,751 teachers by the KFTA released on May 14 showed that only 24 percent of teachers were satisfied with their job, a sharp drop from the 67.8 percent in 2006 when the survey was first conducted.  
 
This is the first time that those respondents who said they were happy with their job was in the 20 percent range, the lowest ever.  
 
Some 88 percent said their morale has dropped over the last couple of years, a significant jump from 55.3 percent in 2009 when the same question was first asked.
 
Additionally, 70 percent said they don’t feel as though teachers' rights are protected.  
 
People Power Party Rep. Lee Tae-kyu proposed a revision to the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools Act on May 12 that would grant immunity to teachers against civil and criminal charges in the absence of intentional or gross negligence as they perform justified disciplinary or guidance activities.
 
The teachers’ association urged that the reform bill be passed so that teachers could actively engage in the prevention of school violence.  
 
“There is an increase in complaints and lawsuits that accuse teachers of conducting guidance counseling or processing school violence cases as child abuse if the parents aren’t satisfied,” the KFTA said in a statement.
 
The KFTA said if the legal accountability burden remains unresolved and teachers handling the situation are unprotected, many teachers will be afraid to take a more active role in preventing school violence.  
 
“The educational functions of schools such as healing and reconciliation will be lost,” the KFTA stated.  

BY LEE HO-JEONG, WON DONG-WOOK [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
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