Education authorities to upgrade school security after stabbing attacks across Korea

Social Affairs

Published: 22 Aug. 2023, 13:23 Updated: 22 Aug. 2023, 15:16

Education authorities to upgrade school security after stabbing attacks across Korea

Elementary school students in Gwangju head to school on June 1. [YONHAP]

Education authorities in Korea are drawing up safety measures in light of recent stabbing rampages across the country, even in schools.

Earlier in the month, a 28-year-old man broke into a high school in Daejeon and stabbed a teacher. The man, reportedly the teacher's former student, was taken into custody the same day.

At a middle school in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, a student visited the teacher's office with a knife on Friday, saying he would hurt himself.

"Our lives are threatened at schools which should be the safest place," Cho Sung-chul, spokesperson for Korean Federation for Teachers' Associations (KFTA), said.

"Plans to enhance safety against those visiting schools and to eliminate dangers, such as weapons and inflammable substances, should be included in the ministry's measures to protect teachers' authority."

Education offices are devising safety procedures as the new semester arrives.

According to the Ministry of Education, 79 percent of middle schools and 72 percent of high schools in the country have begun the semester as of Friday.

More than half of elementary schools will start this week.

Police are dispatched to a high school in Daejeon on Aug. 4 after a man stabbed a 40-something-year-old teacher and fled. [KIM SEONG-TAE]

The Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education suspended a service allowing people to find teachers through its website.

The assailant who stabbed his old teacher used this service to figure out the teacher's workplace.

The education office ran a special inspection week for school safety before schools started and inspected 322 schools under its jurisdiction.

Education offices in Gyeonggi and Seoul will increase safety-related personnel and take additional measures.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education will dispatch additional volunteers to manage visitors at schools next year. Two people are sent to each school at the moment.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also decided to work with district offices to place so-called "school managers" at schools who will be in charge of checking the identities of visitors and inspecting school facilities.

Other education offices, including in Gangwon and Busan, advised school staff to abide by the Education Ministry's guidelines for letting visitors enter schools, such as checking their identities and giving them visitor passes.

The Gangwon Provincial Office of Education said it will "enhance security systems such as surveillance cameras and emergency alarms."

Meanwhile, teachers are requesting to shut down schools during non-office hours and station trained security personnel to the site.

Some also say schools should check students' personal belongings.

The KFTA called for safety measures in classrooms, saying that people only know of someone possessing dangerous weapons only after an incident takes place.

The Education Ministry plans to allow teachers to inspect suspected dangerous objects and confiscate them through its new class policies set to go into effect next month.

BY CHANG YOON-SEO, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]