I can't figure out how to link directly to the two articles on the story---GFN's Michael Simning passed them along to me by searching for "치마" on the 광주일보 site---so I will repost them below. Perhaps Korea Beat or another blog can translate them in full.
‘치마 벗겨 체벌’ 10여명이 받았다
광주 C여고 여교사가 성적이 나쁜 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗게 하는 체벌을 줬다는 보도〈본보 28일자〉와 관련, 광주시교육청이 진상조사에 나선 결과 사실로 확인됐다.
시 교육청은 28일 “해당 학교 교사와 학생들을 대상으로 조사를 벌인 결과, 이 학교 영어교사가 수업도중 일부 여학생에게 치마를 벗게 하는 체벌을 준 것으로 드러났다”고 밝혔다.
이날 시 교육청이 조사한 결과에 따르면 이 학교 1학년 영어 담당 여교사는 수업시간에 본 쪽지시험에서 성적이 나쁜 학생에게 교복 치마를 벗은 채 무릎을 꿇도록 하고, 교탁 주변을 돌게하는 벌칙을 줬다.
이 같은 벌칙은 신학기인 지난달 쪽지시험에서 ‘0점’을 맞은 학생들을 중심으로 10여명이 받았다.
이들 중 일부는 치마를 벗고 교탁 뒤에서 2∼3분간 무릎을 꿇다가 제자리로 되돌아갔고, 일부는 치마를 벗은 채 교탁 주변을 왔다갔다하는 벌을 받았다고 시 교육청은 설명했다.
문제의 여교사는 진상조사에서 “성적이 너무 나쁜 아이에 대한 벌칙의 하나로 학생들이 제안한 ‘이마 매 맞기’와 ‘치마 벗기’ 중 하나를 정했다”고 해명했다.
하지만 일부 학생들은 “학생들이 이 같은 벌칙을 제안했다는 주장은 사실이 아니며, 치마를 벗고 교실을 돌게 하는 벌칙까지 줬다”고 반박했다.
시 교육청 관계자는 “학생들과 논의해 정했다 하더라도 체벌방식이 적절치 않으므로 정확한 진상조사를 거쳐 징계 등의 조치를 취하겠다”고 밝혔다. 한편 시 교육청은 이 같은 체벌이 재발하지 않도록 광주지역 교사들을 대상으로 체벌 방지 교육 등을 강화해 나가기로 했다.
/박진표기자 lucky@kwangju.co.kr
* * *
여고생 치마 벗겨 벌 세우기
광주의 한 여자고등학교에서 일부 교사들이 수업 도중 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗게 하는 벌칙을 주고, 욕설을 했다는 주장이 제기돼 인권침해 논란이 일고 있다.
27일 광주 C여고 학생과 학부모들에 따르면 이 학교 1학년 영어 담당 여교사가 수업 시간 도중 쪽지시험을 본 뒤 성적이 나쁜 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗고 교실을 도는 벌칙을 주고 있다는 것.
이 학교 한 학생은 “친구들 앞에서 교복 치마를 벗고 교실을 돌면서 극심한 수치심을 느꼈다”면서 “저는 한 번 밖에 벌칙을 받지 않았지만, 다른 친구들은 수차례에 걸쳐 이러한 벌칙을 받기도 했다”고 주장했다.
또 다른 학생도 “아무리 공부를 못한다고 사춘기 소녀들의 치마를 벗기는 게 말이나 되느냐”면서 “선생님께 항의하고 싶었지만, 미움을 받을까봐 꾹 참았다”고 말했다.
이에 대해 해당 교사는 “학기초에 쪽지 시험을 봤는 데 ‘0’점이 나온 아이들이 있어 두 차례에 걸쳐 치마를 벗게한 뒤 무릎을 꿇고 있게 했으며, 벗은 치마로는 무릎을 덮고 있게 했다”면서 “치마를 벗고 교실을 돌게 했다는 말은 사실이 아니며, 요즘은 이마저도 하지 않고 있다”고 해명했다.
이 학교의 또 다른 여교사는 1학년인 A양이 꽃무늬가 새겨진 가방을 들고 등교했다는 이유로 가방을 빼앗고, 폭언을 한 것으로 알려져 학부모의 반발을 사고 있다. 이 학교는 숙녀용 가방과 빨간색 등 화려한 색상이나 꽃무늬 등이 새겨진 가방을 들고 등교하는 것을 금지하고 있다.
A양은 “다음날 학교 홈페이지 게시판에 ‘가방의 기준은 어디까지 인가’라는 글을 올렸는데, 이를 본 선생님이 저를 교무실로 부르더니 여러 선생님들이 지켜보는 앞에서 ‘낮과 밤이 다른 X’, ‘이 것도 홈페이지에 올려라’라는 등의 폭언을 했다”고 주장했다. 이후 심각한 스트레스를 겪은 A양은 결국 부모님과 상의 끝에 전학을 가기로 결정했다.
A양의 어머니는 “아이가 극심한 스트레스를 받고 우울증 증세를 보여 전학을 결심하게 됐다”면서 “우리 아이가 마지막 피해자가 되길 바라는 마음에서 시 교육청에 감사를 의뢰할 생각”이라고 울먹였다.
이에 대해 이 학교 교감은 “가방과 관련해서는 해당 교사로부터 폭언을 한 사실이 없다는 말을 들었다”면서 “치마를 벗기는 벌칙도 학생들을 의욕적으로 지도 하는 과정에서 일어난 일로 보인다”고 해명했다.
/박진표기자 lucky@kwangju.co.kr
/김형호기자 khh@kwangju.co.kr
* Update: translation by Korea Beat here; an excerpt:
According to the investigation, the female English teacher had the students, who had done poorly on a pop quiz, remove their skirts and duck-walk around the teacher’s desk.
A similar punishment was meted out to over 10 students who scored 0 on a pop quiz last month.
Some of them removed their skirts and spent two to three minutes with their knees bent before returning to their desks, and others removed their skirts and walked to the teacher’s desk and back, the Office explained.
The teacher at isse explained to the investigation, “I gave the extremely low-scoring students a choice between taking their skirts off or being hit on the forehead.”
But some of the students criticized her, saying, “the students didn’t ask for the punishment, we had to take our skirts off and walk around the classroom.”
19 comments:
Completely inappropriate. Fire her ass.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black ... why then are the waygooks the only ones subjected to sexual harassment training?
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/04/29/200904290042.asp
Where do you get the impression Korean teachers do not get sexual harassment training? (Not to say that everyone who gets it follows it, of course.)
I find it odd that so many "punishments" here are sexual in nature, or physically invasive at the very least.
In what culture would anything remotely resembling this be acceptable?
It was a female teacher and an all-girl highschooland she offered them the choice between getting hit on their forehead or taking their dress off in front of the others.
This isn't rly sexual harassment imo, there would be numerous similar examples in all- male environments as well for instance military training, university, rugby, football where either 'punishments' or pranks of similar nature are pulled on its members... I remember going home once as initiation with only my towel and football shoes cuz the team hid all my clothes. Luckily it was getting dark already.. :P
I dont think it's as bad as it seemed at first glance, definitely not as perverted as I expected it to be. especially if you put it into an environment where more teachers like her did it as well.
Perhaps, and I'm sure there were punishments like this in place in my gym classes in school. Nevertheless, in a climate of heightened sensitivity to sexual violence and sexual harassment, it's completely out of line for a teacher to do this. Kushibo will complain about what I say next---and I'm really not in the mood to see a six-page reply---but these are the stories that get me every time I read that native speaker teachers are ethically unqualified, or that are potentially dangerous.
Ah, come on now, Brian. First off, I said clearly off the bat: "Completely inappropriate. Fire her ass."
Second, and more importantly, the Korean media does focus on this. How did you come to read it? Because it's in the Korean-language media, for criminy sake!
It's like I pointed out here and elsewhere: the K-blogs are creating for themselves a distorted picture of how foreign teachers fit into the big picture of how Koreans perceive things. Yes, they get a steady supply of the latest drug arrests or other misconduct, but they also get a steady supply of stuff about Korean teachers as well.
If the Korean public really perceived foreign English teachers the way much of the K-blog commentariat thinks Koreans perceive them, the E2 visa system would have been brought to a grinding halt long ago.
WORD VERIFICATION: compain, one L short of complain.
I've only been in Jeollanam-do for two months, and I don't speak Korean, but I have been absolutely shocked at the lack of professionalism, competence, and intelligence in this part of the country. I know Gwangju isn't technically part of Jeollanam-do, but it's certainly on the same level.
IrR3ALiSt, it may not be perverted but it's clearly inappropriate. Today a teacher would know that. Perhaps five or ten years ago, your defense would be her defense and she'd get off with just an apology, but not today.
An Expat in Korea, where do you teach (i.e., what kind of school/institution) and what are the examples of lack of professionalism, competence, and intelligence in this regard?
Not perverted, but also clearly meant to humiliate, embarrass, and shame.
ROK Hound wrote:
Not perverted, but also clearly meant to humiliate, embarrass, and shame.
This reminds me of a recent US Supreme Court case they've been talking about these past few weeks, involving a then thirteen-year-old girl forced to strip down in front of a (female) assistant principal looking for unauthorized ibuprofen.
That the school employee was the same sex is immaterial: it was a humiliation that even an adult might easily find too much to bear, let alone a young teen.
If these accusations are true, this teacher should be canned or at least seriously disciplined with loss of pay or something.
Kids in Korea are losing respect for their teachers who use the old methods of physical punishment, no, physical assault. Things have to change or else order is going to collapse. It's already on the verge in many places.
WORD VERIFICATION: ought
"This reminds me of a recent US Supreme Court case they've been talking about these past few weeks, involving a then thirteen-year-old girl forced to strip down in front of a (female) assistant principal looking for unauthorized ibuprofen."
On what planet is the case of strip-searching for illegal drugs (while in a private room, only in front of a principal and one other staffer) the same as stripping students down and parading them around in front of a class?
Not the same at all. Nice try, though.
Jamie wrote:
On what planet is the case of strip-searching for illegal drugs (while in a private room, only in front of a principal and one other staffer) the same as stripping students down and parading them around in front of a class?
My point in bringing up this highly topic case in the US is that the humiliation of being forced to strip in front of others can lead to considerable trauma, long-lasting and scarring even. In this regard the two cases, though not exact, bear some important similarities that force us to explore when — if ever — stripping students should be used to enforce discipline.
The similarities are important because the US cases illustrates things that are relevant here: (a) what these girls went through is nothing to brush off, and (b) the fact that it was done in front of a female teacher or administrator does not mitigate the shame and embarrassment.
As for your statement on what I wrote, no, ibuprofen is NOT an illegal drug (it was unauthorized by campus rules, but it is not an illegal drug), and they strip-searched her not because they thought she had illegal drugs but because they thought she had violated their no-tolerance policy on all drugs legal or not:
An assistant principal, enforcing the school’s antidrug policies, suspected her of having brought prescription-strength ibuprofen pills to school. One of the pills is as strong as two Advils.
The search by two female school employees was methodical and humiliating, Ms. Redding said. After she had stripped to her underwear, “they asked me to pull out my bra and move it from side to side,” she said. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.”
Ms. Redding, an honors student, had no pills. But she had a furious mother and a lawyer, and now her case has reached the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on April 21.
Both cases involved humiliation and shame in an overkill process to ensure school discipline and order.
Wrong. The drug search was not intended to induce shame and humiliation. The punishment was intended for that sole reason.
Not the same. Not even close.
kushibo, I see your point in making the comparison---that being stripped is humiliating---but the cases are ultimately different. In one case you could argue that it was reasonable (searching for illegal materials). But the case in Gwangju was designed to humiliate the students and may, who knows, be emblematic of some sexual issues the teacher needs to work out. I actually don't disagree with a little corporal punishment in schools, but some teachers are quite sadistic and clearly don't do what they do with the students' interests in mind.
and kushibo, yes this is a Korean newspaper writing about Korean teachers behaving badly. The difference is you won't find a Ministry of Education official or a school district superintendent making sweeping generalizations about unqualified Koreans, or ethically unqualified Korean teachers. I don't have a persecution complex, and I'm generally treated quite well here---except by a few foreign shitheads---but the portrayl of NS English teachers in the media is one-sided and usually negative. I understand the issue is bigger than us, and really symbolizes questions about "English fever" or lingustic imperialism or whatever, but still.
Brian wrote:
kushibo, I see your point in making the comparison---that being stripped is humiliating---but the cases are ultimately different.
Jamie's misinterpretation of why I presented the Arizona case, notwithstanding (which is largely my fault due to my failure to pinpoint what words I was focusing on in the quote I was responding to), I was not saying that the two cases are the same. In terms of what happened and why it happened, in fact, they are quite dissimilar.
I presented this currently topical case largely in response to IrR3ALiSt's comment, because it illustrated the lasting effects of the humiliation of being forced to remove one's clothes in a public facility — even if done in private — even when it is done in front of same-sex employees of the school.
That's all. That aspect alone is why I was reminded of this case, which NPR has been talking about last week and this week. The girl in question, a 13-year-old honors student at that time, dropped out of school after incident, which was humiliating to her.
In one case you could argue that it was reasonable (searching for illegal materials).
And at any rate, they were not looking for "illegal materials" (your words) or "illegal drugs" (Jamie's words). They were searching for her because they thought she had an unauthorized prescription ibuprofen on her, and they forced her to show her breasts and her vaginal area to prove she didn't.
But the case in Gwangju was designed to humiliate the students
Yes, and it should not have happened. I've made that crystal clear. I pointed out the topical Arizona case because it supports the notion that this kind of humiliation can be very scarring. For the young teenager, it does not matter whether the humiliation was intended (as it was in Kwangju) or not (as appears to be the case in Arizona). The Supreme Court is dealing with that very idea.
and may, who knows, be emblematic of some sexual issues the teacher needs to work out.
I think that's a distinct possibility in the Kwangju case. Considerably less so but still possible in the Arizona case (that they would take it as far as they did when they kept NOT finding the ibuprofen seems indicative of something).
and kushibo, yes this is a Korean newspaper writing about Korean teachers behaving badly.
Yes, and I pointed that out because I think foreign teachers are doing themselves a tremendous disservice by creating or perpetuating this mythical idea the average foreigner gets punished right and left while the average Korean routinely breaks the law with impunity. Even in this thread, we read something that suggests "the waygooks [are] the only ones subjected to sexual harassment training."
The difference is you won't find a Ministry of Education official or a school district superintendent making sweeping generalizations about unqualified Koreans, or ethically unqualified Korean teachers.
One big factor in this is the the various education ministries have far more control over their "regular teachers" than they do over foreign teachers or the "irregular" teaching employees.
But the sweeping generalizations from officialdom or positions of authority, as I have clearly stated, cross the line and need to be answered.
I don't have a persecution complex, and I'm generally treated quite well here---except by a few foreign shitheads---
Huh?
but the portrayl of NS English teachers in the media is one-sided and usually negative. I understand the issue is bigger than us, and really symbolizes questions about "English fever" or lingustic imperialism or whatever, but still.
I have been writing and saying negative crap about the Korean media for years. Korean journalism as a whole — there are some decent journalists out there with integrity but I'm speaking of a systematic problem — needs an overhaul.
I wholeheartedly agree that there is, due to laziness among some and an agenda among others, a largely negative portrayal of native-speaking English teachers. This has largely gotten worse in the last few years, but in the big picture there's also a lot of shitting on the Korean teaching profession as well, who are depicted — in ways often mentioned in the K-blogs — as incompetent buffoons who routinely sexually harass their students when they're not taking bribes from the kids' parents.
You may not have a persecution complex, Brian (and I believe you don't), but the way the K-blogs present these and, more importantly, the way they are discussed, does create that in more than a few people.
What should be done is a more surgical and focused effort on two fronts: foreign teachers should clean up their act where they can and should dispassionately go after the specific individuals (such as the head of the GSIE...whatever) when they do the foolish things they do.
ATEK should be focusing on that instead of fighting the cup-pissing as a human rights violation. Your lots has nobody properly representing you, and that sucks.
Although it is hard to wrap our minds around this, this may be somewhat (can I say) out of context culturally.
It is hard for me to express my opinion without seeming to be a wierdo, so I hope you can trust me that I am NOT!! (Haha)
Anyhow, I went camping with my grade 1 Middle school boys last fall and took part in some of their fun activities which were co-ordinated by the camp leader mid-way through. (They were keen to have me there by the way.) The activity was a "hot potato" slipper pass. When the music stopped, the person with the slipper had to do what the leader said. I was amazed that his first call (that I witnessed) was to remove your shirt and dance. (It happened to be me who had the slipper.) The next round I was quicker with the passing, but was shocked when the caller told the boys holding the slipper to remove their pants and dance. I averted my eyes to the floor and then the game was over.
Anyways, to get back to the point, Korea is MUCH less inhibited in this way. I love going to the sauna and getting a full body exfoliation scrub! I revel in watching fathers do the same with their sons and often see the same happen between adolecents too! Unheard of in "our" society. I think that is very sad!
However getting back to the point again, the teacher gave the (supposedly) students a choice. Punishment is often "corporal" to some extend and almost always physical (stand with your hands up, or kneel on the hard floor and write a "black paper"). So my question is, what is wrong with it. Presumably, if the student was uncomfortable with the punishment, then she would have chosen the forehead 'twack'. These punishments are often used as a reminder and an embarrassment for the student. If that embarrassment can be a little bit "fun/funny" maybe it is more useful.
Especially if it was done in the teacher's room (as I got from the article), then this could indeed be both fun/funny and a good reminder.
And hey, what is the big difference between showing your underwear and wearing a bikini bottom? (I think this last statement is gonna be the kicker!!)
Just my two cents.
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