"Why Didn't We Realize Sooner?" Students Write Letters to Their Late Teacher

Jeju Teachers' Union Publishes
50 Letters from Students Mourning Their Teacher

Tributes continue to pour in for Mr. A, a teacher in his 40s who was recently found dead in a storage room at a middle school in Jeju.

On May 26, the Jeju Teachers' Union released letters from 50 of Mr. A's students on its official website. The letters were written in memory of Mr. A, who passed away on May 22.

Mr. A's students expressed their respect and gratitude toward him, and also called for measures to be put in place to prevent such tragedies from happening again.

In one letter, student Go Mo wrote, "I can still clearly remember you smiling and greeting us at the end of the hallway, playing with us. You always took care of students in difficult situations and were always by our side. Why couldn't we realize sooner that you were going through such a hard time?"

Another student, Hyun Mo, wrote, "I felt what it means for a person's life to be destroyed when teachers' rights are undermined, for someone's father to disappear, and for us to lose a true teacher. Please protect and strengthen teachers' rights so that this never happens again."

A memorial note honoring a middle school teacher from Jeju who died after suffering from complaints by a student's family is attached at the condolence altar set up at the Jeju Provincial Office of Education on the 24th. Earlier, in the early morning of the 22nd, a teacher in his 40s, Mr. A, was found dead in a storage room of a middle school in Jeju. The family of Mr. A testified that he had been under extreme stress recently due to continuous complaints from a student's family, to the extent that he could not eat properly. Yonhap News

The Jeju Teachers' Union stated, "These public letters were written by students who hope that true teachers will never again suffer such unjust deaths and that a better educational environment will be created. We hope these words will help reveal the truth behind the teacher's unjust death and contribute to building an environment where such tragic losses of true teachers never occur again."

Meanwhile, on May 22, Mr. A, a teacher in his 40s, was found dead in a storage room at a middle school in Jeju. Mr. A's family testified that he had recently been under such extreme stress from continuous complaints by a student's family that he could not even eat properly.