High School Requiring '20-Minute Walk' Every Early Morning... Human Rights Commission Recommends Suspension

Forced 'Dawn Walk' at 6:40 AM
Penalty Points for Students Missing Morning Exercise
Human Rights Commission Recommends Suspension, Citing Internalization of Discipline and Obedience

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRCK) has recommended the suspension of a high school that required all students to walk early every morning and imposed penalty points for non-participation.

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Photo by Kim Hyunmin, Asia Economy

On the 19th, the NHRCK judged that A High School in Gyeongbuk, where all students live in dormitories, violated students' general freedom of conduct and right to self-determination, and recommended stopping the mandatory morning exercise and deleting related regulations.

According to the school's operating regulations, all students were woken up at 6:40 a.m. every morning and made to walk on the back mountain for about 20 minutes. The dormitory bedtime was between midnight and 1 a.m., and students who did not participate in the morning exercise were given penalty points. In response, a current student, B, filed a complaint with the NHRCK in September last year, claiming that forcing students who were unwell with menstrual cramps, headaches, and stomachaches to participate in the exercise violated their human rights.

The school argued that this was a tradition to instill proper lifestyle habits in students, but the NHRCK sided with the student. The commission stated, "Forced morning exercise will result in students internalizing discipline and obedience rather than freely expressing their personalities and autonomously shaping their living environment," and pointed out, "Since students do not get much sleep, making them do morning exercise makes it difficult to expect substantial health benefits and may become an additional source of stress."