Who forced it?, 24-year-old Korean female teacher committing suicide and violence in classroom | Campus | Korea
In despair, Jin ultimately made an extreme choice.
Author: Yu Bing
On the morning of July 18th, the rapid honking of police cars and ambulances pierced through the peaceful campus of Seoul's Sii Elementary School.
The police received a report that there was a female corpse in a classroom of a class in first grade.
After being identified by the school staff, the deceased was a female teacher from the school, Ms. Jin.
That morning, posts about Jin began to appear on some teacher forums: "A newly appointed teacher made an extreme choice in school. Because her parents believed that she had not handled campus violence work well, they maliciously complained about her and even threatened her with dozens of phone calls a day. She ended her life in her own class because she couldn't bear it anymore."
Some people say that Kim's death is the tip of the iceberg where South Korean teachers are oppressed and humiliated. The inaction of the school and education departments, coupled with the ambiguous handling of this matter, has made many teachers feel even more disheartened.
Once, they had a longing for this sacred profession and became teachers, but now they just want to end this job as soon as possible.
"You are not qualified to be a teacher"
After hearing the news of Jin's death, the media attempted to recreate a scene from her lifetime.
The Saii Elementary School where Kim is located is located in the Ruicao District of Seoul. That is a famous wealthy area in South Korea, where many celebrities, politicians, and entrepreneurs live. Xiyi Elementary School, which has good teaching conditions, is the first choice for many parents, so there are many students from special family backgrounds here.
According to colleagues, Jin is a teacher with two years of teaching experience. She was hired as a formal teacher at Xiyi Elementary School this year and has been working as a first grade homeroom teacher since March. In addition, Jin is also responsible for campus violence work, and one of his job responsibilities is to answer phone calls from parents complaining about campus violence.
Usually, Jin will arrive at school at 7:30 am. When asked about Jin's work situation at school, she said, "It's 10 times harder than last year."
It is said that some parents are legal professionals and when talking to Jin, they will say in a commanding manner, "I am someone's father. Do you know who I am? I am a lawyer!"
The trigger for Jin's suicide was the recent "pencil incident" that occurred in her class.
One day, a female student played a prank and poked the front row male student's backpack with a pencil. During the process of stopping her, the male student's forehead was scratched by a pencil.
After the incident, the parents of the two students obtained Jin's private phone number from somewhere and kept calling her. Sometimes, she receives dozens of phone calls from her parents in a day and is scolded by them for "how do you take care of your students" and "you are not qualified to be a teacher.".
Not only the parents of the students, but also the students who make mistakes have no discipline in the classroom, shouting at Jin, "It's all your fault.".
The media's exposure of Jin's death has drawn much attention to this matter. However, the response of the school and police to this matter was unacceptable to the public.
Two days after Jin's death, the principal of Xiyi Elementary School wrote, "At that time, the class was allocated according to Jin's own wishes, and the teacher was not responsible for campus violence related affairs. There have been no reports of campus violence in this class this year.".
But the public believes that the principal's response is simply not to hold the school accountable.
Police officials have stated that "investigations have been conducted into individuals, family members, parents, and others related to the school, but as of now, it has not been confirmed that the deceased committed suicide due to dissatisfaction with the school or conflicts with parents.". The police also stated that they did not find Jin's suicide note.
The response from the school and police has made Jin's family extremely angry. Kim's uncle told that on July 24th, the Seoul Teachers Union, with the authorization of the deceased's family, released Kim's diary two weeks before his suicide.
"After a weekend, although I still felt very weak, I didn't feel very tired. After starting work on Monday, a lot of work and 22's troubles came one after another, and suddenly everything became difficult again. I want to let go."
"I always can't catch my breath. When I eat, my hands tremble and tears almost come out."
In despair, Jin ultimately made an extreme choice.
Reasons for complaints made out of nothing
"Why should pregnant people become class teachers?"
"Teacher, please don't get pregnant this year."
"I accidentally miscarried and took two days off sick, but my parents questioned me, 'How do you want to ensure my child's education?'"
"A parent doesn't even know how to use a multiplication table, and I'm going to be told by him, 'What's the use of having a little girl study videos? Once she comes out, she can become a teacher.'"
These seemingly outrageous words are complaints from parents against teachers.
The job of a teacher is to teach and educate, but in the eyes of some parents, the job of a teacher should also include other aspects.
A netizen claimed that their child was in first grade of elementary school, and their homeroom teacher would drink coffee in the classroom every day. A student bought the same type of coffee from a convenience store and brought it to the class. Other students, curious about the taste of coffee, drank the bottle together.
This netizen complained that teachers should not drink coffee in front of elementary school students, as they have a responsibility.
After reading the post, other netizens expressed, "Teachers are really extreme professions. Do you even have to hide and drink coffee?" "Let teachers go" "Parents should educate us about this kind of thing.". Another netizen left a message saying, "Indeed, it was the fault of the parents who believed there was a mistake in this matter and posted it.".
What is even more unbearable for teachers is that students and parents are not just verbally violent towards them.
Just a month before Jin's death, a sixth grade homeroom teacher in a primary school was trying to persuade a student with anger regulation disorder to receive psychological counseling and education, but was punched and kicked by the student. The teacher was ultimately diagnosed with needing three weeks to recover. The entire process of the student assaulting the teacher was witnessed by the whole class, and no one came out to stop it.
After interviewing some teachers, some media found that a considerable number of teacher bullying incidents were not caused by students, but by their parents. Most parents, upon learning that their children have beaten other children or insulted teachers, do not acknowledge that it is their children's problem. Instead, they advocate for their children to be emotionally abused and seek justice for their children.
A student's mother caught the teacher, but after the student's father abused the teacher, the school claimed that it was the fault of both parties; A parent of a student used the excuse that the teacher did not answer the phone the night before to push down the teacher at school the next day.
A 35 year old teacher who teaches at a primary school in Seoul said, "Every time before school starts, I have to worry about which class to lead. We receive complaints from parents every day, and they shout at us in rude language. We can only listen and do nothing.".
Another elementary school teacher with 8 years of teaching experience, Zhang, also said, "We are complained about by our parents every day. Even if the school knows that their complaints and reports are unfounded, complaints will still be recorded in our work records. We can only silently bear these. If possible, I will resign as soon as possible.".
To avoid the occurrence of the next Jin
The threat to the rights of South Korean teachers is not a recent occurrence. And Jin's death opened the veil of shame that had been covering this old issue.
Teacher Zhou, who has been working in Korean education for many years, told Global People reporter that Koreans used to emphasize respecting teachers and valuing the Tao. However, with the "Westernization" reform of Korean education, teachers should not use physical punishment to punish students like in the past, and should also pay attention to not speaking too harshly. Especially with mobile phones, students can easily threaten teachers by saying, "I want to take pictures of you and post them online.".
In addition, the school authorities also need to consider the face of the school board when dealing with related events. Usually, the board of directors of each school is composed of parents of students, who are either social figures with certain status or business professionals who can contribute money and effort. Some school boards even have the power to dismiss the principal.
Over time, constrained teachers have almost no dignity in front of students and parents.
Some public opinion also believes that one of the main reasons for the frequent occurrence of this phenomenon is the lack of legal provisions in South Korea to curb campus violence. Even if students obstruct the teacher's teaching at will in the classroom, they will not be held accountable.
According to a survey by the South Korean education department, over a period of 5 and a half years from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023, nearly 100 public primary and secondary school teachers in South Korea made extreme choices, with the highest number of primary school teachers, totaling 57.
The number of extreme choices made by teachers increased for four consecutive years, with 14 in 2018, 16 in 2019, 18 in 2020, and 22 in 2021. Although the number slightly decreased to 19 in 2022 due to the impact of the epidemic, with the resumption of offline teaching, there were 11 cases in the first half of this year alone.
As the chain reaction caused by the bullying of teachers in society intensifies, the call for change is also becoming stronger.
In 2012, the Lee Myung bak government issued a comprehensive strategy to protect the authority of teachers and voluntarily established a Teacher Authority Protection Committee. In 2019, the Moon Jae-in government amended the law on the status of teachers and established a system of reporting major violations of educational authority by the Department of Education.
Nevertheless, the phenomenon of infringing on the rights and interests of teachers continues to increase.
Many teachers empathize with Jin's experience because they have had the same experience. So, they don't want Jin's death to be covered up. In order to avoid the next Jin, they decided to step forward and speak up for the interests of the teachers.
The teachers spontaneously put on black clothes and carried white chrysanthemums to pay tribute to Jin at Xiyi Elementary School. A wreath was placed in front of the school gate, and banners with mournful words such as "As a senior, I couldn't protect you, I'm really sorry" and "Who will protect the human rights of teachers" were also posted in front of the school gate.
Since Jin's death, teachers have been holding demonstrations on weekends for three consecutive weeks. On August 5th, about 40000 educators braved the high temperature of 35 degrees Celsius and participated in a rally to fight for the rights of teachers at Seoul's Guanghuamen Square.
Jin's sister said at the rally, "Not only my sister, but also many teachers are suffering from bullying from students and parents. They are not receiving help and can only tremble and hide in the darkness, suffering alone.".
She said, "We earnestly request all departments to conduct investigations and also ask you to reflect on the cases of teachers being harmed, make the right choices, and prevent such incidents from happening again.".
Primary school teachers generally believe that the development of relevant systems to prevent parents from making malicious reports is urgent. At the same time, there are also opinions that it is necessary to target parents and provide relevant education on the scope of teacher guidance for students and the responsibilities that students and parents must fulfill.
On July 24th, South Korean President Yoon Seok yeol gave instructions at a work meeting: "In order to strengthen the rights and interests of teachers, the Ministry of Education should quickly formulate relevant notices and modify autonomous regulations."
At present, the South Korean Ministry of Education has begun to formulate measures such as the Teacher Rights Protection Act. But when the bill will be enacted, there is still a long way to go.
