Court upholds day care center worker's suspension over child's injury

Seoul Administrative Court said Monday that it recently ruled against a teacher at a local day care center, who challenged a three-year suspension of duties imposed after a 5-year-old under their supervision fell and sustained injury.

The court upheld the disciplinary action by the Geumcheon-gu Office in November of 2011, who suspended the teacher for three months after the child was injured in February of 2022 at the day care center in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul. The child fell from a 2-meter-tall playground structure and sustained an injury that required 12 weeks of treatment.

"A child tends to be less attentive and more curious than adults, and thus are more vulnerable to accidents. As a teacher entrusted with the protection from the parent (of the child), the defendant should have paid close attention to the child's actions to prevent an accident," the court said in its verdict.

The defendant had said that the suspension was unfair, saying that they had warned the children not to use the equipment alone and that they had been looking after another child who fell from a swing at the time.

But the court argued that, because the swing was close to the structure from which the child fell, it was possible for the defendant to prevent the accident.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)