Suicide unleashes torrent of grievances from bullied teachers

A group of teachers hold a press conference in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday afternoon, urging measures to better protect teachers’ rights. [NEWS1]

Complaints by teachers regarding harassment by parents are pouring in after a young elementary school teacher took her own life last week.

Many people believe bullying by the parents of a student accused of school violence was behind the suicide.

According to the Gyeonggi Teachers' Union, 1,800 complaints were filed over a four-day period between Friday and Monday through a website created for such reports.

In one case the union shared, a parent called a teacher at 10 p.m. to rant about a school violence incident involving their child and to blackmail the teacher.

"You answer properly! Is this violence or not? I am recording this so you better answer well!" the parent shouted at the teacher over the phone.

Another set of parents even appeared at school with gangsters when a committee to handle incidents of school violence held a hearing for their child, who choked another student.

Some teachers had to deal with parents' personal matters.

One drunk father called a teacher late at night to say, "I have divorced my wife, but I still love her so please tell her."

Teachers' pregnancies were another matter that nosy parents cared much about.

One teacher said a parent told her not to get pregnant for the year she taught their child.

"I have no idea why my child always has a homeroom teacher like this," one parent told a pregnant teacher.

On Monday, a man appeared at a press conference held by Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, to blame the death of his daughter, a teacher, on verbal assault from parents.

The father said parents blackmailed his daughter, telling her they would "put her in jail" and "make sure she'd never work as a teacher again."

Teachers who have undergone similar experiences are also connecting online.

An elementary school teacher in Gyeonggi opened an online community for teachers wrongly accused of child abuse.

"Before, teachers were hiding such matters for the sake of the school and students, but now is the time to publicly discuss how to defend ourselves," the teacher said.

The Gyeonggi Teachers' Union said the Ministry of Education should come forward with proper preventive measures to tackle the problem.

However, there are so many complaints from teachers that the government may have a tough time dealing with them all.

"The quickest way for teachers to get help is to reach out to the support center of an education office or go through a committee for the protection of teachers' rights," an official from the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education said.

The problem is that committees for the protection of teachers' rights only hold hearings when over a quarter of the members, the school's principal and the commissioner agree to do so.

In many cases, school principals refrain from holding such hearings for fear of public sentiment and complaints from parents.

Moreover, no laws mandate a committee hearing when teachers request one, though a bill to that effect is mired in the National Assembly.

The Education Ministry is considering drawing up measures to penalize school principals who fail to convene committees properly, as well as parents who violate teachers' rights.

A 23-year-old elementary school teacher in Seocho District, southern Seoul, took her own life in a classroom at Seoul Seo 2 Elementary School last week due to suspected harassment from the parents of a student involved in school violence.

Teachers across the country will hold another mass rally this weekend to demand the protection of teachers' rights and improvements in the educational environment of public schools.

The rally is scheduled to take place Saturday afternoon after a memorial for the 23-year-old elementary school teacher is held.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO,CHOI MIN-JI [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]