"What Will Seoul Education Directors Do After Participating in Politically Neutrality-Violating Statement?"

Seongbae Lee, Floor Leader of the People Power Party in Seoul Metropolitan Council, Criticizes "Seoul Education Chiefs Participating in Political Statements Made False Explanations and Coordinated Stories to Avoid Discipline"... Calls for "Appropriate Disciplinary Actions for Clear Violations of Political Neutrality and Prohibition of Collective Actions"

Representative Lee Seong-bae

Lee Seong-bae, the representative of the People Power Party in the Seoul Metropolitan Council (People Power Party, Songpa 4), announced that it has been revealed that Seoul education superintendents who issued political statements regarding Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon's Supreme Court ruling made false explanations to avoid disciplinary action, and that the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education colluded to cover up for their own staff.

Representative Lee claimed that on August 27, prior to the Supreme Court's final ruling on Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon, 157 education superintendents and others issued a collective statement defending former Superintendent Cho and opposing his dismissal, among whom 10 were education superintendents affiliated with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

In response, Representative Lee Seong-bae requested the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to provide a report on the circumstances and facts of the matter, as well as the Office's future response and disciplinary measures. On September 10, officials from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education conducted a progress report on the issue.

According to the report disclosed by Representative Lee, the Office's internal investigation concluded that "the signed statement contained general petition content and it would be difficult to consider it a violation of political neutrality obligations, thus it does not meet the criteria for disciplinary action."

The superintendents who signed the statement explained at the Seoul Metropolitan Council Education Committee meeting on September 3 that their actions were "a personal petition signed out of concern for potential school chaos in the event of a vacancy in the superintendent position and in support of a colleague (superior) who had worked hard for a long time," and the internal investigation by the Office of Education summarized the same explanation.

Representative Lee stated, "I received a report that disciplinary action was difficult because the superintendents signed the statement thinking it was a general petition without fully understanding the content. However, upon reviewing the petition signed via Google Form by the superintendents, it was clear that the superintendents and the Office of Education coordinated their statements and made a completely false report," and he disclosed the contents of the Google Form statement.

The Google Form was titled "Urgent Joint Statement Request from School Administrators and Education Professionals Nationwide Regarding the Supreme Court Ruling on Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon," explicitly using the term "statement" rather than "petition," and emphasized underlined notes below the title stating, "Due to the nature of the current situation, there may be disadvantages resulting from joint signature participation."

Furthermore, the full text of the statement was identical to the content distributed as a press release to the media, containing supportive remarks that "Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon's actions were a natural follow-up measure."

Representative Lee said, "According to the Office of Education, the statement was not distributed uniformly to all Seoul education superintendents but participants were gathered by sharing the Google Form link among acquaintances. It is presumed that the link was selectively shared with those likely to agree with the statement's content. Therefore, this statement can only be seen as those recognized as part of the 'Cho Hee-yeon faction' openly revealing their names and affiliations, fully aware of potential disadvantages, thereby disclosing their political stance."

Finally, Representative Lee added, "Politically biased collective actions in the education field are absolutely unacceptable. Yet, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education not only tried to cover for their own staff but also made a false report that would soon be exposed. This is an act of mocking the council and the citizens of Seoul, attempting to cover up wrongdoing with further wrongdoing. I will take measures to ensure appropriate disciplinary actions are taken against the Office's attitude."