Sexual Assault Among Special School Classmates, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education Suspected of 'Cover-Up'

First Review 'No Charges' → Second Review After Police Investigation 'Charges Recognized'

Si Education Office: "New Testimony Secured, Reviewing as a Different Matter... Not Concealment"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education has been accused of attempting to cover up a sexual violence incident that occurred between classmates at a special school.

In the first School Violence Deliberation Committee meeting, the case was dismissed due to ‘insufficient evidence,’ but after the police launched an investigation, a second deliberation was held, reversing the decision and acknowledging the sexual violence.

According to the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education on the 29th, the School Violence Committee held a second deliberation on the 15th regarding the sexual violence suspicion between classmates at the special school, recognized the facts, and took the measure of ‘forced transfer’ for two perpetrator students.

This directly overturned the ‘no charges’ result from the first deliberation held on July 15.

In the second deliberation, the committee judged the case as school violence causing physical and psychological harm to the victim student based on the school’s submitted school violence investigation report and related student testimonies.

However, the victim’s parents claimed that the Office of Education tried to conceal the incident.

The parents stated, “When we found out that our daughter received a pregnancy test kit from a male student in the same grade, we immediately raised the issue with the school, which led to the School Violence Committee meeting. However, the committee covered up the case, saying there was no evidence of sexual violence.”

In fact, the second deliberation was not initially scheduled, but after the victim’s parents filed a complaint with the police on August 10 and additional circumstances emerged, the committee convened again.

The parents lamented, “Why would he give a pregnancy test kit? They completely ignored the fact that if the sexual assault happened long before the hospital examination, the traces could have disappeared. The first deliberation was conducted carelessly.”

They also pointed out, “The school teachers consistently said, ‘We are always watching the kids, so such things wouldn’t happen,’ rather than trying to uncover the truth. It can only be seen as an organized cover-up by the teachers and education authorities.”

Civil organizations in the Gwangju area also expressed regret over the deliberation results.

A representative of the organization said, “Sexual violence is a serious matter, and if there had been a procedure to hear opinions from sexual violence experts from the first School Violence Committee meeting, this outcome would not have occurred.”

Regarding these suspicions, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education stated that the second deliberation was not a continuation of the first but a new deliberation held due to different facts, not a cover-up.

An official from the Office of Education explained, “The second deliberation was held after the perpetrator was investigated by the police and then visited the school teacher to provide new testimony, which led to the new deliberation. This testimony added new facts, so it was held as a different agenda from the first deliberation.”

He added, “In the first deliberation, the perpetrator testified that he gave the ‘pregnancy test kit’ as a gift to the victim. Although this raised suspicion, there was no clear witness or evidence, so it was decided as no charges. According to the principle of ne bis in idem, if no new case is added, we cannot arbitrarily investigate the children.”

However, despite the first deliberation’s decision of no charges based on the testimony that the pregnancy test kit was given as a gift and the absence of evidence of sexual assault on the victim’s body, the fact that the decision was reversed in the deliberation held immediately after the police investigation has made it impossible to avoid suspicions of an attempted cover-up.