'Emotional Abuse' Applied... Prosecutors Find No Charges
About 1,800 Teachers Express "Concerns Over Teacher Authority Erosion"
A teacher who overturned a desk to stop a fight among students in a classroom is once again under investigation by the prosecution. This comes about a month after being cleared of charges by the prosecution.
According to the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office on the 6th, a complaint from an elementary school parent requesting an investigation into teacher A at an elementary school in Gwangju for violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes was received by the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office on the 31st of last month.
In April last year, A was accused of civil and criminal charges by a parent who claimed their child suffered physical and emotional abuse due to excessive discipline while A was trying to stop and reprimand an elementary school student who was fighting with classmates in the school classroom.
According to the police, in April last year, A is suspected of pushing a desk toward the hallway with their foot to stop B’s son, who was fighting with another student in the classroom. Then, in May, when the child hit a friend again and was made to write a reflection letter, the child wrote that they had done nothing wrong, so A tore it up, which was considered emotional abuse and led to child abuse charges.
Parent B initially claimed that A threw the desk, but police investigations confirmed that the desk was overturned.
A stated, “The children were excited, so I pushed the desk at the back of the classroom toward the hallway to draw attention, and when the children calmed down, I apologized for scaring them.”
He also explained, “I asked the child to write a ‘reflection on my behavior,’ but since the child wrote that they had done nothing wrong, I told them not to write like that and tore it up.”
However, B claimed, “My child showed abnormal symptoms such as vomiting every time they went to school after being repeatedly scolded by A, and is still receiving weekly psychological treatment.”
He added, “If A had just apologized, this would not have escalated to a lawsuit. I think the teacher’s response was excessive for a minor fight where no children were hurt,” and filed a civil lawsuit seeking 25 million won in damages.
The police concluded that A’s actions did not constitute physical abuse but did amount to emotional abuse and referred the case to the prosecution. Under the Child Welfare Act, emotional abuse refers to acts that harm or pose a risk to the mental health of the child victim.
However, on April 29, the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office decided not to indict A. After considering both sides, they judged that there was insufficient evidence to recognize child abuse.
Additionally, it appears that public opinion in the education sector influenced the decision, as over 1,800 teachers nationwide submitted petitions requesting leniency for A, citing concerns that teacher authority could be undermined. Last year, 16 out of 20 students and parents from the class A was homeroom teacher for also submitted petitions asking A to continue as their homeroom teacher.
Meanwhile, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union conducted a survey from September 21 to October 3 last year targeting 6,243 teachers from kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide on the “Handling Process of Child Abuse Cases.” The results showed that 92.9% of teachers felt that “I could also be suspected of child abuse and reported.”
Six out of ten teachers said they had either directly received a child abuse report (11.3%) or had seen cases involving fellow teachers (54.8%). Among those who had received child abuse reports, only 1.5% of cases resulted in a confirmed guilty verdict.
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