From CNBNews. Netizens are eager to find, and share, the teacher's identity.
News out of Gangseo-gu:
A 33-year-old female middle school teacher has been found having inappropriate relationship with one of her pupils. According to Gangseo Police Station in Seoul, the contract female teacher allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old student in her car at an underground park last week.
. . .
The mother reported it to the police, but the police said they terminated the investigation as the two had sex under mutual consent and there was therefore no legal grounds to punish the teacher.
The current law punishes only adults having sex with those aged under 13. However, the school plans to fire the teacher for the unethical relationship.
This fits with an earlier post about how few (Korean) teachers are disciplined for sexual crimes and improprieties, according to concerned lawmakers.
There is some ambiguity, and a lot of interest, in the South Korean age of consent. The Grand Narrative reaffirmed in January that it's 13.
8 comments:
Kyle: I attend South Park Elementary, and one of the teachers is having sex with a student.
Policeman: Miss Stephenson is having sex with a student? Wait, what's the crime?
Policeman: The crime is she's not doing it with me!
Kyle: What? He's totally underage! She's taking advantage of him!
Sgt Yates: You're right. This is serious. We must find this kid and give him his "Luckiest Boy in America" medal right away!
It's that 'mutual consent' part that makes it not a crime.... right? We're assuming, of course, that this teacher doesn't have the power to completely f*ck up this kid's academic life. Back them up into a corner and give them no room to talk to anyone, then offer them a way out: it was 'mutual consent', or we have 'feelings' for each other.
13 years old... That's like 11 or 12 elsewhere in the world...... just sick...
It depends on the conditions that the sex happened under. Age of consent is 13 in South Korea but you can't offer compensation or can not be found to be taking advantage of them until their adults. I forgot the legal wording that is used but it really comes down to a judgment call between the police and the parents. If the parents want the older person to get in trouble they can raise all sorts of racket and have their kids say they were taken advantage of, which brings different laws into play.
Basically Korean man can have sex with 15 or 16 year old high school girls, but a foreigner will get blasted and kicked out of the country. Its really really sick.
We're assuming, of course, that this teacher doesn't have the power to completely f*ck up this kid's academic life.
She was the homeroom teacher. She TOTALLY has that power over the kid, although I imagine the school would step in and change things if any shenanigans to fuck him over were obvious enough for them to notice.
13 years old... That's like 11 or 12 elsewhere in the world...... just sick...
No, not 13 "Korean age". The laws on this sort of thing are based on international age.
> This fits with an earlier post about how few (Korean) teachers are disciplined for sexual crimes and improprieties, according to concerned lawmakers.
Also fits in with American practice. Male teacher, female student? Expect him to be fired & face charges. Female teacher, male student? She might be fired, might be charged. Certainly she won't be villainized as inhuman scum.
> Female teachers are often treated differently in the media than male teachers who have sex with underage students.
> "The main dichotomy is in coverage — men are demonized, women are diagnosed," Felling said. "Men are beasts, but women are troubled, or mentally ill." Or the women are simply portrayed as voluptuous and sexual. In the LaFave case, suggestive photographs of her surfaced shortly after the news of her affair with the student broke.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147179,00.html
Notice how few women are charged or actually imprisoned (as opposed to suspended sentence, probation, etc.) in this list: http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=39783
exactly, gwern. On Dave's people---as usual---were comparing Korea to the "civilized" countries from whence they came. I pointed out that the US really isn't a good counterexample considering the doublestandard in place for female statuatory rapists and how they're viewed in society.
And that quotation by Felling is on point.
15 years old?!
Shocking. I heard she was 35 and married with children...."that's what my co-teacher said". And she was Korean, which lets the foreign world off-the-hook. It's still disgusting.
This news was disturbing. After I read it, I spent a few 6th grade (they're 13yrs) class periods assessing how a teacher might do that to one of her students? On a lighter note-- your blog got this info to me days before my Korean co-teacher did! Thanks.
As has been pointed out already, South Korea is certainly not the only country to have a double standard regarding children being taken advantage of by men or by women (I immediately thought of that South Park episode too). But it's frustrating to see that foolishness in any country. Sexual relationships between adult teachers and adolescent students are inappropriate and should be criminal, regardless of the gender of the people involved.
@palladin
" Age of consent is 13 in South Korea but you can't offer compensation or can not be found to be taking advantage of them until their adults."
While it's up to Korea to decide on its own age of consent, I just can't see how a 13-year-old could possibly be in any sort of romantic or sexual relationship with an adult WITHOUT being taken advantage of. I think the age of consent needs to be raised to reflect this.
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