"Teachers Became Civil Complaint Handlers"... 5,000 Angry Teachers Rally in Protest

Death of Seoicho Teacher... Urging Measures
"Beyond Teacher's Rights, a Crisis of Survival Rights"

On the afternoon of the 22nd, about 5,000 teachers and education university students gathered in front of Bosingak in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Current and former teachers and education university students from across the country, angered by the suicide of Mr. A, a second-year teacher at Seo-i Elementary School in Seocho-gu, Seoul, assembled wearing black clothes and masks.

The teachers took turns going up to the podium to commemorate Mr. A, expose the realities of infringements on teachers' authority, and call for fact-finding and countermeasures. Participants wiping away tears while listening to the speeches on the podium were seen in various places.

Participants are chanting slogans at a memorial service held near Bosingak in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 22nd, related to the teacher death incident that occurred at an elementary school in Seocho-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

A second-year teacher working in Gyeonggi Province said, "Today, we voluntarily gathered on the important topic of the right to live," adding, "The teacher community is flooded with posts about malicious complaints from parents. I cannot erase the thought that someday I might face the same."

He continued, "Even after work hours, when parents call, new tasks begin under the pretext of consultation," criticizing, "The core problem is the structure where one teacher is responsible for 25 children and their parents."

Another teacher expressed, "I think the biggest problem is the system where complaints hit teachers directly without any filter," lamenting, "Teachers have long become a complaint handling team."

The rally was organized by the Public Education Emergency Countermeasures Committee (hereafter referred to as the Committee), a voluntary teachers' group formed in response to this incident. The Committee stated, "We hope this incident does not end with just feelings of anger and sorrow," and urged, "Let us reclaim teachers' rights through solidarity and ensure that such incidents never happen again."

They also urged, "Teachers in the field are exposed to life-threatening threats such as indiscriminate verbal abuse by parents," and strongly demanded, "The Ministry of Education take strong measures to guarantee teachers' right to live."

After the speeches, participants shouted slogans together such as "We demand fact-finding," "Guarantee teachers' right to live," and "Guarantee teachers' right to education." They held placards reading "Guarantee teachers' right to live." This was an appeal that the crisis felt in frontline education is not about teachers' authority but about their right to survival.

Initially, a preliminary survey conducted before the rally estimated about 2,000 participants, but on-site, more than double that number?5,000 participants (estimated by the organizers)?gathered. As the area around Bosingak was packed and crowds spilled onto the sidewalk across the road, the police opened two additional lanes of the road in front of Bosingak.