Teacher abuse on the rise amid weak protections

In Korea, rising violent and disruptive behavior by students has left hundreds of teachers physically and psychologically traumatized.

School teachers who are members of a nationwide labor union picket for protections in front of an elementary school on Jan. 25 in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang. [YONHAP]

In Korea, rising violent and disruptive behavior by students has left hundreds of teachers physically and psychologically traumatized.

In April, a high schooler in Jeju pushed and verbally abused a teacher who reprimanded him for his improper attire. The teacher reported the attack to the police, who questioned and charged the underage offender with assault.

On May 9, a school-level committee dedicated to protecting teachers’ rights suspended the student from the school for 10 days and ordered him to receive psychological therapy.

The disciplinary measure came about a week before Teachers’ Day, which fell on Wednesday. Nevertheless, the teacher remains traumatized.

A total of 1,133 schoolteachers reported physical violence from their pupils between 2018 and 2022. Of these, 361 reported attacks in 2022, more than double the number of 172 in 2018.

When including verbal abuse and psychological harm, cases of teacher abuse reached 11,617, according to materials the Education Ministry submitted to the office of Rep. Chung Kyung-hee on May 14.

The yearly figure has risen steadily from 2,452 in 2018 to 3,035 in 2022. The exception was in 2020, when nearly all classes were conducted virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Annual cases of physical assaults that teachers faced between 2018 and 2022 [EDUCATION MINISTRY, CHUNG KYUNG-HEE]

An official from the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations — a nationwide teachers’ group — said that the country might have experienced even more instances of classroom violence against teachers if “unreported cases where teachers remained silent” were included.

Other teachers and educational professionals believe that the ministry's numbers are “underreported” and that last year’s figure — which is not yet available — would surpass that of 2022.

Last year, teachers nationwide rallied to demand stronger safety and prevention measures after a 23-year-old teacher at Seo2 Elementary School killed herself after struggling with endless complaints from a student’s parents.

Defamatory remarks toward schoolteachers were the most common form of abuse, accounting for over half of the annual cases.

Cases of students illicitly collecting and trading the personal information of teachers nearly tripled from 16 cases in 2018 to 56 in 2022.

Violence and harassment weren't limited to physical classrooms. The abuse has extended into cyberspace, where it often descends into sexual harassment.

Complaints of sexual harassment jumped from 187 in 2018 to 331 in 2022. Moreover, seven teachers complained that students produced and circulated maliciously edited videos and images of them.

A total of 1,664 teachers took leave to recover from the harm they suffered. The Education Ministry has offered five-day leaves to teachers who were abused by pupils since 2019.

By year, 284 teachers took leave in 2020, 584 in 2021 and 796 in 2022.

Some teachers who took leave did not return to classrooms immediately but took extra months to recover fully.

Between 2020 and 2022, 717 teachers took 60 or 180-day sick leave. Another 58 teachers voluntarily relocated and continued their professions at different schools.

Education experts say teachers are unprotected because means to punish or restrain harassment by students or parents are lacking.

According to the Education Ministry, a student who threw a food tray at a teacher instructing him to stand in a queue received a mere 10-day suspension. No mechanism prevents parents from texting and calling day or night other than an advisory not to.

Rep. Chung, who serves in the National Assembly’s education committee, called for “legal protection and policies,” including measures “mandating regional education offices to report parents who raise false accusations of child abuse against teachers.”

The lawmaker said teachers should not be left in an environment “where their human rights cannot be protected at the bare minimum.”

BY CHOI MIN-JI, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]