South Korean teachers participate in a rally in front of the National Assembly on Sept. 4, 2023 in Seoul, South Korea. School teachers rallied to mourn the recent suicide deaths of fellow teachers distressed by disgruntled parents and unruly students, and to call for measures to prevent such tragedies.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Important Takeaways:
- Last year, elementary school teacher Seo Wonbin heard from the police that one of his students’ parents reported him for child abuse. The parents listed five incidents as the basis of their claim. One of them was that Seo didn’t help their daughter connect to the school Wi-Fi.
- “The parents threatened me during an in-person meeting
- When teachers’ groups started collecting alleged incidents of abuse by students’ parents, responses claiming excessive demands, threats and verbal abuse poured in.
- Those claims included parents demanding a teacher pick up their injured child every morning, parents calling a teacher’s personal phone late at night or while drunk, parents demanding that a teacher not get married or pregnant while in charge of their child’s class, and so on.
- On Sept. 4, tens of thousands of teachers staged a walk-out despite the government’s warning of punishment. South Korean law prohibits teachers’ strikes.
- And as the unprecedented actions by teachers took place through the beginning of the fall semester, at least three more teachers took their lives following similar struggles.
- Following teachers’ suicides and protests, the government, parliament and local education authorities announced measures to strengthen teachers’ rights in classrooms, improve their work environment and better protect them against harassment.
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