Gyeonggi Office of Education Produces Guidance Materials for Responding to COVID-19 Related Hate Speech

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has produced and distributed guidance materials addressing hate speech related to COVID-19 within schools.

This comes in response to the recent spread of hate speech and discrimination cases targeting confirmed COVID-19 patients, their families, and certain religious groups amid the ongoing pandemic situation.

Kim In-wook, Director of Student Life and Human Rights at the Gyeonggi Office of Education, explained, "Considering that hate speech could impact school environments due to COVID-19, we recognized the need for eradication measures. The guidance materials were created with the purpose of enabling school members to block, prevent, and develop the ability to respond to hate speech."

The guidance materials include ▲ the concept of hate speech ▲ the dangers of hate speech ▲ freedom of expression and hate speech ▲ hate speech in daily life ▲ the role of school members ▲ and methods to respond to hate speech.

Additionally, the Gyeonggi Office of Education plans to produce and distribute online card news along with the guidance materials to facilitate hate speech response education tailored to the characteristics and situations of individual schools.

Earlier, in May, the National Association of Provincial and Metropolitan Superintendents of Education and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea jointly announced the "Joint Declaration on Responding to Hate Speech for Equality Practice in Human Rights-Respecting Schools."

Meanwhile, in last month's "2020 Public Perception Survey on Discrimination" by the National Human Rights Commission, 91.1% of respondents answered that "amid the global spread of COVID-19, I too could become a target of hate and discrimination at any time."