Gwangju Federation of Teachers' Associations Calls for Appeal Process for Teachers on Teacher Rights Protection Committee Decisions

The Gwangju Federation of Teachers' Associations has called for institutional reforms to better protect teachers' rights in cases of violations of teacher authority.

The teacher is preparing the lesson for the students in the classroom. Photo unrelated to the article. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On September 10, the Gwangju Federation of Teachers' Associations stated in a press release, "While students and parents can file objections to the decisions of the Teacher Rights Protection Committee, teachers have no procedure to appeal measures taken against offending students. If a teacher who has suffered an infringement of their authority deems the measures against the offending student insufficient, there should be a process for raising objections."

The organization further emphasized, "Decisions by the Teacher Rights Protection Committee alone are not enough to protect teachers. Even a single instance of a malicious complaint should be recognized as an infringement on educational activities, and there must be a system in place that allows for proactive legal action to be taken under the name of the superintendent, rather than by individual teachers."

The Gwangju Federation of Teachers' Associations also mentioned a recent case of teacher authority infringement at an elementary school. The organization explained, "In this case, the student's guardian refused to comply with the measures of the Teacher Rights Protection Committee and continued to file complaints for a year through the Student Human Rights Relief Committee, administrative appeals, transfers and re-transfers, and criminal charges, but the victimized teacher had to respond alone."

A representative from the Gwangju Federation of Teachers' Associations stated, "The Office of Education must also play an active role in protecting teachers in cases of authority infringement, rather than remaining a bystander."