A former high school student has lost a suit which she filed to annul a school's disciplinary action against her after she hit a teacher. A local court ruled that a student hitting a teacher in reaction to corporal punishment did not constitute legitimate self-defense.
The Seoul Administrative Court Thursday ruled against the 18-year-old student, who graduated from a science high school in Seoul and is now a university freshman.
According to the court, the unidentified girl was taking a rope-skipping test during a physical education class last November. A sophomore at the time, she needed to take the test to graduate early. When the teacher did not let her take the test at her designated turn, she protested, speaking impolitely.
The teacher demanded she move aside so that other students could continue the test, but she refused. He then hit her on the head with an attendance book he was holding. The girl slapped the teacher on the cheek, and then the teacher attacked her with his hands and feet, causing her to receive medical treatment for 12 weeks.
The school ordered her to take six days of special lectures for disobeying and hitting the teacher. She accepted the punishment, but filed the suit later to annul the measure, claiming her action was legitimate self-defense against the teacher's improper instruction and corporal punishment.
The court, however, rejected her claim saying, ``It is wrong for a teacher to hit a student with the attendance book despite protest, but slapping the teacher on the cheek is neither a proper reaction nor self-defense.''
Actually I agree that slapping a teacher after the first hit was a bad move, but maybe that's because I've been desensitized by seeing lots of more, um, vigorous punishment at school. But Christ, how can a teacher beat a student bad enough to require 12 weeks of treatment and get away with it?
It also said that the school's discipline was not an abuse of its discretion even though the student received serious injuries inflicted by the teacher.
The teacher was earlier fined 3 million won and received a disciplinary warning, after the student sued him over the attack.
Wow, that's quite a message to send to teachers.
10 comments:
Stories like this just make my stomach hurt. And I feel I must disagree with you, Brian, on one issue. Any teacher who whacks a "Young adult", for clearly high school students do not fall into the category of "Child", deserves to be slapped. To compound the teacher's lack of professionalism by beating the holy crap out of the girl is reprehensible, at the very least, and down-right criminal to any logical, thinking human being.
Putting aside the physical and psychological damage done to the girl, herself, the psychological damage done to all the students who WATCHED merits a jail term for the teacher.
And just to troll a bit here- imagine if that had been a native speaking English teacher.
You do bring up a good point about the students who watched it.
I think this sends two messages to teachers, one good one bad. It says that abuse of teachers won't be tolerated.
But it also says they can beat students with relative impunity. Now, the guy got a 3 million won fine, and we read last month about the elementary school teacher in Incheon who was given a suspended jail sentence for beating two students, but let's not forget corporal punishment is illegal. Teachers have said they're sometimes afraid to use corporal punishment because students will snap photos and take videos, so they've banned cellphones in school. And by saying students who hit back---and who get beaten up---have no recourse, that removes another obstacle for teachers who cannot control a classroom through any means other than violence.
I heard in some big cities in America, there are foreign teacher exchange programs. I'd really like to see some Korean try to pull this kind of garbage on some kids and then get his ass sent to prison where he'll get raped on a day to day basis. Now I feel kind of bad for wishing forced sodomy on someone but, the power trip pricks who teach in Korean schools need to learn the lesson that the violence that they condone does nothing to fix the situations that they are in. It only makes the Korean classroom that much more chaotic since the stakes are always raised to the point where students don't respond to the teachers unless they are getting beaten by them.
This Is Me Posting, Korea is not the only country where self-defense is de facto illegal (but it's okay for criminals to do whatever they want to). Governments would rather have citizens absolutely dependent on the police, as a form of control and repression.
3gyupsal, please find a moving bus and jump under it as soon as possible.
JCSC, that won't be difficult in this country since driving on the side walk is perfectly okay if you are trying to avoid a red light.
I do hope these aren't Americans, telling off korea for being too violent! As a European I think the USA is a disgraceful example to any developing country. At least in Korea they don't need metal detectors to stop kids bringing in guns to school. I dont think Americans realise that they are not an example of a civilised society to anyone.
Adam, nationality has nothing to do with this. This is a situation where child abuse had been forgiven, and an incredibly unprofessional person retained his job with a mere slap on the wrist (or face). By your logic, my being American makes it hypocritical of me to observe kids getting their asses kicked by adults and then comment negativly on the situation.
Within the 3rd week I lived in Korea, I witnessed three high school girls get slapped in the face with the force that they nearly fell down. After that they were given five lashes to the backside with a cricket bat. The punishment was being doled out by a man of about forty-five years old, and I have no idea why they were being punished.
I wasn't appalled because I was American, I was apalled because this was the action of a grown adult against children.
So Adam, in what European country is it okay for adults to attack children. I really want to know.
3gypsal- thank you for pointing out the obvious to adam. I must say, I am becoming quite impatient with people who make such comments as he (adam). First, the US has a population of 3 million people. To say that all schools in the US are hotbeds of violence and guns is just silly.
And, yes, adam, I am an American, although I prefer a citizen of the United States. I grew up in public schools, my son grew up in public schools, and I taught in public schools. I can honestly tell you, I have never seen as much violence in schools as I have seen here in Korea.
Do I have a "Right" to speak out? Absolutely. Of course I do. Why shouldn't I? As 3gypusal pointed out, this has nothing to do with nationality, it has everything to do with basic human rights. It has to do with the students' right to have an educattional environment that is not laced with violence.
Please, adam, do try not to form opinions based on Hollywood. Television is not reality. Please?
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