Case of Parental Infringement on Teachers' Rights
"Is the Teacher Mentally Okay After a Miscarriage?"
Parents Demand Replacement of Homeroom Teacher
A controversy has arisen after it became known that a parent requested the replacement of a homeroom teacher upon learning about the teacher's miscarriage. The parent claimed that the teacher's "mental state might affect the students."
On August 1, posts titled "Parents File Complaints Demanding Replacement of Homeroom Teacher Who Had a Miscarriage" spread across various online communities and social networking services (SNS). This story was originally introduced in the 2023 "Casebook of Parental Infringement on Teachers' Rights" and has recently become a topic of debate online.
According to the casebook, this teacher, who works at a large elementary school with 40 classes, asked the school to be excused from taking charge of a first-grade class, as it would be physically and mentally demanding during pregnancy. However, the vice principal insisted, saying "there is no other choice," and forced the teacher to take on the first-grade homeroom role.
In the end, the teacher collapsed and was taken to the hospital on the day of the entrance ceremony, resulting in a miscarriage. The vice principal did not allow the teacher to take sick leave, so the teacher had to return to teaching immediately without any recovery period.
However, the teacher had to endure another shock while grieving the miscarriage. As rumors spread among parents that "the homeroom teacher didn't attend the entrance ceremony because of a miscarriage," complaints demanding a change of homeroom teacher began to be filed.
The source of the rumor was none other than the vice principal. The vice principal officially informed parents about the teacher's miscarriage. A few days later, the education office began receiving related complaints. The complaints included statements such as "Is the teacher who had a miscarriage mentally okay?" and "Please change the homeroom teacher."
Despite these circumstances, the teacher had to continue teaching and even heard a student say, "The baby died in your belly, teacher." After class, the teacher called the parent to ask how the child knew about this. The parent replied, "My child is mature and knows well. It's true, isn't it? You're not judging my child for saying that, are you?"
Readers who saw this post reacted by saying, "Elementary school teacher is an extreme job," "Even as a woman, how could they do that?" "I'm worried about the future of Korea," "Parents must have experienced childbirth too, how can they react like this?" and "Usually, people just say it's for health reasons, not reveal personal medical details."
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