Seoi teacher tragedy changes little

[Anchor]

Today (July 18) marks exactly two years since a teacher at Seoi Elementary School in Seoul was found dead after suffering from malicious complaints from parents.

Following this incident, five laws were revised to protect teachers’ rights, but many teachers say they have felt little impact from the changes.

In May, a middle school teacher in Jeju, and last year, a special education teacher in Incheon ended their lives due to unbearable complaints from parents.

In so-called “school districts” with frequent complaints from parents, teachers are avoiding work, leading to a situation where only new teachers can be assigned to fill the positions.

Two years after the Seoi Elementary tragedy, why is the protection of teachers' rights still stagnant? Reporter Lee Soo-min has the details.

[Report]

A fourth-grade homeroom teacher, referred to as Teacher A, is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment.

This is due to repeated conflicts with parents.

Teacher A was verbally abused and pointed at by a parent in front of students for allowing a student who was leaving early to walk to the school gate alone.

[Teacher A/voice altered: "The father was extremely emotional and agitated... He said, 'If the child dies in a single second while walking down, no one will see it.'"]

After several days of contemplation, A posted a message on the class communication network asking parents to refrain from using abusive language. But in response, a parent returned to confront Teacher A again.

This time, the level of verbal abuse escalated as the parent threw objects.

[Teacher A - Parent/July 8th: "I can't take this, I can't stay here anymore... (See, again, we're talking about you!) Sir! (You can't go out. You can't leave. After doing this, you want me to be calm and respectful?)"]

Two years have passed since the Seoi Elementary tragedy, but teachers still find it difficult to respond effectively when their rights are violated.

The "response teams" for dealing with malicious complaints are often made up of fellow teachers, which raises the risk of further victimization by the same perpetrators.

[Teacher A/voice altered: "We were only told to form a complaint response team on paper. We've never received any practical training or clear procedures."]

In a survey conducted by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, nine out of ten teachers responded that the current school complaint response system is not effective in protecting educators.

[Jeong Young-hwa/President of the Gyeonggi Elementary Teachers' Association: "We need a structural system where teachers are not forced to directly respond to complainants one-on-one."]

There are also growing calls to strengthen protections by banning the disclosure of personal contact information of teachers and centralizing all complaints through official school channels.

This is KBS News, Lee Soo-min.