Vietnamese Middle School Students Gang Assault Female Teacher... Parents Say "We Need to Think About Why They Did It"

Parents of Perpetrator Student Claim "Retaliation After Being Assaulted First"
Major Education Issue 'Violation of Teacher's Authority'... Strict Punishment for False Accusations Needed

As controversy over violations of teacher authority spreads following an incident where middle school students in Vietnam collectively assaulted a teacher, disagreements have arisen between teachers and parents regarding responsibility.

According to Vietnam's VN Express on the 8th (local time), on the morning of the 29th of last month, dozens of 7th-grade students at a middle school in Tuyen Quang Province in northern Vietnam locked a music teacher in a classroom and collectively assaulted him.

A group of first-year middle school students in Vietnam are cornering a female teacher in the classroom and swinging sticks at her.
Photo by VN Express

The video at the time showed dozens of students surrounding the teacher, bumping his shoulders, waving sticks close to his face to threaten him, verbally abusing him, and throwing trash at him. They also cheered loudly each time they inflicted violence on the teacher.

The teacher eventually fainted at the scene, and as the video spread through social media, a controversy over violations of teacher authority arose in Vietnam.

However, after the incident, the parents of the offending students claimed, "We need to consider why the students behaved this way," arguing that "the teacher first used violence against the students, and the children retaliated." They pointed out the teacher's usual conduct, saying that parents had filed complaints about the teacher's problematic behavior as recently as October.

The teacher refuted, stating, "Since last semester, some students have been disrespectful to teachers, and on the day of the incident, after class, students started playing music and dancing without permission," adding, "I reported this several times to the principal, but nothing was resolved."

Not only in Vietnam but also in South Korea, 'violations of teacher authority' have been the biggest issue in the education sector this year. Starting with Seo-i Elementary School in Seoul, teacher deaths occurred across the country in places like Daejeon and Cheongju, prompting teachers suffering from malicious complaints to take to the streets.

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations revealed that among the lawsuits related to violations of teacher authority reviewed this year, cases where teachers were reported for child abuse by parents accounted for 48% of the total, marking an all-time high. The number of cases and the amount of support provided for legal fees such as attorney fees also reached record highs at 113 cases and 290.1 million KRW, respectively.

Examining the child abuse accusations, many were unreasonable lawsuits, such as parents suing vice principals after their child was elected as a student council officer but was disqualified due to election rule violations, or suing teachers who lightly tapped students disrupting class.

The Federation stated, "The number of teachers suffering from civil and criminal lawsuits due to malicious complaints from parents, including 'malicious acts' and 'child abuse reports without basis,' is increasing," and emphasized, "It is urgent to establish laws that severely punish perpetrators of malicious complaints and indiscriminate child abuse reports."