Yoon calls for new school guidelines for fall semester to protect teachers

Restoration of teachers' authority, shoddy construction practices, heinous crime prevention top Yoon's policy agenda

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting in his office Tuesday. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the Education Ministry on Tuesday to establish new school guidelines to protect teachers' rights from as early as the fall semester this year. He stressed that failing to address unruly behavior among children in classrooms is akin to giving way to violators of the law in the name of human rights.

"Failing to discipline children who have refused to follow rules (in a classroom) for the sake of children's rights is no different than failing to punish criminals who have disrupted social order for the sake of protecting human rights," Yoon said in a Cabinet meeting held in his office in Seoul.

He added that leaving children who misbehave unpunished by teachers will breach their classmates' right to study, just as restrained law enforcement would eventually restrict the rights of ordinary people.

Yoon ordered the government to lay out more detailed regulations in regard to a June enforcement decree for a revised law that prescribed teachers' rights to give advice to, consult with, caution or discipline disobedient students in the classroom, saying detailed guidelines must be announced and implemented before the new semester starts in schools in late August.

He also called on the National Assembly to swiftly revise relevant laws -- the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Special Act on the Improvement of Teachers’ Status and the Protection of Their Educational Activities -- to prevent teachers from unfairly being accused of child abuse and being suspended from their positions based on allegations.

"Without firm establishment of teachers' authority and basic rights, calls to protect students' rights will remain empty," Yoon said.

Concerns have been growing over teachers remaining powerless when disciplining students, as they say they often face parental interference. If a teacher is accused of child abuse, they are suspended from their position immediately and criminal court proceedings begin.

Last month, a 23-year-old teacher in an elementary school in Seocho-gu, Seoul apparently took her own life in a classroom, after the teacher was revealed to have been contacted an undisclosed number of times by students' parents in the days before her death, according to police.

The death of the young teacher has sparked nationwide uproar. Out of fears that they might otherwise be forced to ignore misbehaving students or that teachers themselves might be excessively disciplined, affecting the educations of the other students in the class, over 30,000 teachers rallied at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul to call for a remedy to prevent unfair child abuse claims from parents.

"The Education Ministry should carve deep into its heart the voices of the tens of thousands of teachers who gathered near Gwanghwamun despite the heat wave last weekend," Yoon said.

Also garnering media attention was a row involving web cartoonist Joo Ho-min and his wife, who sued a special education teacher for abusing their son who has autism, as the son was isolated from the classroom after demonstrating physically and sexually abusive behaviors targeted at classmates. Conservative Gyeonggi Province Superintendent of Education Yim Tae-hee said in a social media post Monday that the suspended teacher would return to her classroom the next day.

During the meeting, Yoon also urged an all-out inspection of underground car parking lots that adopted beamless slab designs -- or underground spaces supported by reinforced concrete columns without the use of beams -- in newly built apartment complexes.

The collapse of a parking lot at a construction site in Incheon in April was attributed to the use of concrete that was not adequately reinforced, according to a Land Ministry briefing on the inspection result in early July. Construction had been nearly halfway done when it collapsed.

Yoon laid the blame on "cartels with vested interests" in the construction industry, saying the beamless slab structure in the parking lot was "erroneously designed, shoddily constructed and inadequately supervised."

"Cartels with vested interests who turn a blind eye to people's safety must be eradicated," Yoon said, calling for pangovernmental efforts to strongly punish violators of the law.

Yoon also called for the prevention of heinous crimes by those with antisocial personality disorder and retaliation against victims. This came after high-profile cases including the latest knife rampage near Seoul's Sillim Station in July.

Yoon ordered the Justice Ministry to come up with preemptive measures and ordered the Health Ministry to map out a new infrastructure for mental health management, though no other specific details were provided.

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the Education Ministry on Tuesday to establish new school guidelines to protect teachers' rights from as early as the fall semester this year. He stressed that failing to address unruly behavior among children in classrooms is akin to giving way to violators of the law in the name of human rights.

"Failing to discipline children who have refused to follow rules (in a classroom) for the sake of children's rights is no different than failing to punish criminals who have disrupted social order for the sake of protecting human rights," Yoon said in a Cabinet meeting held in his office in Seoul.

He added that leaving children who misbehave unpunished by teachers will breach their classmates' right to study, just as restrained law enforcement would eventually restrict the rights of ordinary people.

Yoon ordered the government to lay out more detailed regulations in regard to an enforcement decree for a law revision in June that prescribed teachers' rights to give advice to, consult with, caution or discipline disobedient students in the classroom, saying detailed guidelines must be announced and implemented before the new semester starts in schools in late August.

He also called on the National Assembly to swiftly revise relevant laws -- the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Special Act on the Improvement of Teachers’ Status and the Protection of Their Educational Activities -- to prevent teachers from unfairly being accused of child abuse and being suspended from their positions based on allegations.

"Without firm establishment of teachers' authority and basic rights, calls to protect students' rights will remain empty," Yoon said.

Concerns have been growing over teachers remaining powerless when disciplining students, as they say they often face parental interference. If a teacher is accused of child abuse, they are suspended from their position immediately and criminal court proceedings begin.

Last month, a 23-year-old teacher in an elementary school in Seocho-gu, Seoul apparently took her own life in a classroom, after the teacher was revealed to have been contacted an undisclosed number of times by students' parents in the days before her death, according to police.

The death of the young teacher has sparked nationwide uproar. Out of fears that they might otherwise be forced to ignore misbehaving students or that teachers themselves might be excessively disciplined, affecting the educations of the other students in the class, over 30,000 teachers rallied at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul to call for a remedy to prevent unfair child abuse claims from parents.

"The Education Ministry should carve deep into its heart the voices of the tens of thousands of teachers who gathered near Gwanghwamun despite the heat wave last weekend," Yoon said.

Also garnering media attention was a row involving web cartoonist Joo Ho-min and his wife, who sued a special education teacher for abusing their son who has autism, as the son was isolated from the classroom after demonstrating physically and sexually abusive behaviors targeted at classmates. Conservative Gyeonggi Province Superintendent of Education Yim Tae-hee said in a social media post Monday that the suspended teacher would return to her classroom the next day.

 

Parking lot checks

During the meeting, Yoon also urged an all-out inspection of underground car parking lots that adopted beamless slab designs -- or underground spaces supported by reinforced concrete columns without the use of beams -- in newly built apartment complexes.

The collapse of a parking lot at a construction site in Incheon in April was attributed to the use of concrete that was not adequately reinforced, according to a Land Ministry briefing on the inspection result in early July. Construction had been nearly halfway done when it collapsed.

Yoon laid the blame on "cartels with vested interests" in the construction industry, saying the beamless slab structure in the parking lot was "erroneously designed, shoddily constructed and inadequately supervised."

"Cartels with vested interests who turn a blind eye to people's safety must be eradicated," Yoon said, calling for pangovernmental efforts to strongly punish violators of the law.

Yoon also called for the prevention of heinous crimes by those with antisocial personality disorder and retaliation against victims. This came after high-profile cases including the latest knife rampage near Seoul's Sillim Station in July.

Yoon ordered the Justice Ministry to come up with preemptive measures and ordered the Health Ministry to map out a new infrastructure for mental health management, though no other specific details were provided.

By Son Ji-hyoung(consnow@heraldcorp.com)