[NEWS ANALYSIS] Korea divided over special education teacher's rights

Korea is sharply divided over the extent teachers can use their authority to control students. The debate has now spread to the field of special education following a child abuse complaint filed by popular webtoonist Joo Ho-min against a special...

Korea is divided over the extent teachers can discipline students in classrooms. [SHUTTERSTOCK]

Korea is sharply divided over the extent teachers can use their authority to control students.

The debate has now spread to the field of special education following a child abuse complaint filed by popular webtoonist Joo Ho-min against his autistic son’s special needs teacher.

Joo filed the complaint against the teacher based on a recording device he hid in his son’s bag, which was used to record the teacher allegedly abusing his son. He claims the teacher repeatedly verbally abused his son after he removed his clothes and exposed himself to a female peer.

When the fact that the teacher was removed from her position due to the complaint became public, the artist came under heavy fire, prompting education authorities to restore the teacher's position.

The debate continues, with the next round of hearings slated for Aug. 28.

Webtoon artist Joo Ho-min [JOONGANG ILBO]

Criticism against Joo

Public opinion turned against Joo when accounts from those who claim to be parents and teachers at the school said he took legal measures to remove the special needs teacher from her position. He reportedly filed the child abuse complaint without trying to settle the issue with the teacher directly.

The teacher was indicted in December last year and removed from her position by the Gyeonggido Office of Education in January. She was the only special education teacher at the school.

“Joo’s actions undoubtedly harm the future of his son and other special children,” Roh Hwan-kyu, former president of the Korean Medical Association, said on his social media account on July 28.

“From now on, all of the teachers who get to instruct his son will always think that he is carrying a recording device and act accordingly.”

The current law on education officials allows education offices to remove teachers undergoing child abuse investigations from their position.

Education offices in Korea have used this authority in nine out of 10 cases when a child abuse allegation is filed against a teacher to avoid further entanglement.

A person on July 21 mourns for a 23-year-old teacher who died by suicide, allegedly following the abuse by parents of her students. The teacher was found dead in a classroom at Seoul Seo 2 Elementary School in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 18. [NEWS1]

The practice is under fire as the root cause of teachers falling victim to abuse by students and parents, including a recent case of a 23-year-old teacher at Seoul Seo 2 Elementary School that decided to take her own life on July 18.

Other special education teachers lambasted the webtoonist.

“I’ve never once thought scooping up the feces of a mentally disabled student in a bus or cleaning an autistic student's ejaculation as disgusting or dirty,” Bae Jae-hee, a special education teacher in Gyeonggi, said in a social media post on July 30.

“Even a humble special education teacher like myself lives with my vocation carved into the soul. But if you [Joo] insist on replacing the teacher, I will resign rather than continue teaching in fear of a complaint and readily accept this as the nation telling educators of this era to give up on special education.”

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA) filed a petition with the court on Tuesday, requesting a thorough review of whether the disciplinary actions against the special needs teacher were reasonable.

"Do not let this case be a precedent that allows unauthorized recordings to become prevalent in classrooms," KFTA said in a statement.

A Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations official on Tuesday holds up a petition the organization filed with a court over a child abuse case between webtoonist Joo Ho-min and a special education teacher. [KOREAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS]

The teacher's position was restored earlier that day by the Gyeonggido Office of Education as the public anger against Joo intensified.

“This issue is not a matter about a single teacher; it could rattle Gyeonggi’s special education system as a whole,” Lim Tae-hee, superintendent of the provincial education office, said the previous day. “Our office will respond from an institutional level so that teachers are no longer left to act by themselves.”

Around 190 more petitions written by 300 petitioners were reportedly submitted to the court as of July 31.

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education in July, 97.7 percent of the 22,082 teachers surveyed said they face difficulty in controlling students because they fear receiving child abuse complaints.

A student is going to a school in Incheon on June 1. [YONHAP]

Support for Joo

While the vast majority are against Joo, some claim his actions were justifiable to some extent.

“The issue must not be centered around how they handled the situation,” a special education teacher surnamed Ko, who works at a special needs facility in Pohang, North Gyeongsang, told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“It should be on the adversities that special education teachers face daily and the dilemma that parents face in raising a disabled child.”

According to Ko, parents like Joo have three options for their children's education, all of which leave the parents in a quandary.

The first and best plan of action is enrolling the child at a special school. But due to the limited number of special education institutions in Korea, it is an unspoken rule among parents to give kids with a severe level of disability a chance to raffle in for a seat at a special school.

Teachers demand improvements in working conditions and protection of their classroom rights during a mass rally held in Jongno District, central Seoul, on July 29. [NEWS1]

The second option is to homeschool, risking the chance the child will never learn how to behave in a social setting.

This leaves most parents opting for the third option, where most of the disputes between parents and teachers occur: inclusive education. Inclusive education is where disabled students with relatively mild symptoms study in the same classroom as those who are physically and mentally able but need special attention in terms of academics or behavior.

“At the end of the day, they’re just another mother and father who want the best for their son,” a special needs instructor with years of experience said.

Political figures also waded into the debate surrounding the case and called for systematic reform.

Former judge-turned-lawmaker Na Kyung-won, mother to a daughter with Down syndrome, expressed sympathy for Joo on her social media Wednesday.

“Both positions are understandable. Distress from special education teachers and concern from parents of disabled students are all valid,” Na said

Former lawmaker Na Kyung-won, top left, introduces her daughter, who has Down syndrome, during an election campaign in 2020. [NEWS1]

“Special education teachers have a ridiculous number of students to look after under the current system.”

She argued that providing a decent education environment for these students begins with reducing the student-to-faculty ratio.

Na added there should be more opportunities for general teachers to study special education for them to better understand the type of care that people with disabilities really need.

“I hope the current dispute serves as a lesson that guides us towards a better society.”

Accounts of the case

The case dates back to Sept. 5, when Joo’s son, who has the cognitive and language abilities of a 5-year-old, removed his clothes during an inclusive education class. Parents of a female student filed a sexual assault complaint to the school when the girl had difficulty going to school after being traumatized by the event.

The parents of the girl initially wanted Joo's son to transfer to another school to split the two up, but in the end, requested that the school reduce the time they share in the inclusive classroom after taking his condition into account. The case ended at the school level following discussions and the implementation of corrective measures by school officials, the special education teacher, the parents of the two students and external experts.

But on Sept. 21, the teacher received a police notice about a child abuse case filed by Joo and was indicted in December. The Gyeonggido Office of Education removed the special needs teacher from her position in January.

Joo said he hid a recording device in his son’s bag because his son began displaying unusually anxious and unstable behavior since the incident. He added that “something more than just straightforward discipline” was depicted in the recordings and decided to take legal measures to replace the teacher after consulting with attorneys and police officers.

Webtoonist Joo Ho-min gives his account of the story on his YouTube channel. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The teacher said in an accident report that she referred to the son’s cloth-removing behavior when explaining the meaning of the phrase “foul behavior” to him during an inclusive class on Sept. 13.

She admitted repeatedly using “stronger words” with Joo’s son to stop him from storming out of the class or to have him concentrate on video learning material but said the remarks were only intended to ensure the webtoonist's son does not behave in such a way again.

She allegedly called him a “nasty piece of work” and said she hates him to death.

Joo said the teacher repeatedly snapped at his son and his son reflexively replying “okay” or remaining silent broke his heart the most. The teacher claims those remarks were private.

The teacher reportedly took a leading role in persuading the traumatized girl’s family not to take matters to court, both out of a sense of duty as a special instructor and at the Joo family’s request.

The artist claimed that school officials hinted that a legal measure is the only way to replace the teacher, which the school denies.

Joo said he learned about the teacher’s side of the story only after the case made headlines and that he plans to submit a petition to appeal for leniency for her.

Joo is the author of the “Along with the Gods” (2010-2012) webtoon that was adapted into the“Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds” (2017) and “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days” (2018) movies, both of which sold more than 12 million tickets apiece.

He is currently a YouTuber with around 565,000 subscribers. TV and radio programs that Joo fronted were postponed indefinitely and companies took down ads with his image due to the controversy.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]