"'You Have to Eat Nude for Nude Gimbap' Controversy Over 'Sexy Underwear' Involving Ulsan Teacher, Previously Inappropriate Remarks"

'Sexy Panties' Elementary School Teacher Continues Inappropriate Behavior on Past SNS
Repeated Sexual Harassment of Female Colleagues and Female Students
Expert: "Disciplining Only This Teacher Won't Solve the Problem"

Mr. A has been revealed to have continuously engaged in inappropriate behavior, such as posting nude photos of women and making sexually harassing remarks to female colleagues, which were composed in a conversational style. The photo is a post left by teacher A on a blog he operated in the past. Photo by Online Community

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon, Intern Reporter Kim Seul-gi] Amid controversy over sexual harassment involving a first-grade homeroom teacher at an elementary school in Ulsan using the term 'sexy' toward female students, it has been revealed that the teacher, Mr. A, had previously made inappropriate remarks such as telling a female colleague, "Go to your husband with bare skin." A women's rights expert emphasized that this is not just an issue with one teacher but highlights the urgent need for a broader societal change in awareness.

On the 27th, a post titled "Is the first-grade elementary school teacher normal?" was uploaded on an online community bulletin board. The author, who introduced themselves as a parent of a new student at an elementary school in Ulsan, wrote, "There are many strange things, but no one raises any issues," and shared several photos from social networking services (SNS).

The released photos showed Mr. A assigning a weekend filial piety homework task asking students to "wash their own underwear" and requested that they take photos or videos and upload them. When parents posted photos of their children washing underwear by hand, Mr. A commented with phrases such as "Princess shyly cleared," "Pretty underwear, shy shy," and "Pink underwear. Pretty."

When controversy arose, Mr. A explained, "The controversy arose due to a lack of communication with parents, and it was a mistake to assign the task without sufficient communication." He added, "If my expression 'sexy underwear' caused misunderstanding, I will refrain from such remarks in the future," and explained, "Since it was online schooling and I thought the children would strongly want to come to school, I left comments."

Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education building exterior./Photo by Yonhap News

However, it was revealed that Mr. A had continuously posted inappropriate language, sexual jokes, and images directed at students and colleagues on his blog and social networking services (SNS) in the past.

On his blog, Mr. A wrote, "My class kids hug me twice a day. No, I set the rule to do it twice," adding, "Because we are people who must love each other for a year. Whether we like it or not, we are family living together for a year. Even sixth-grade girls hug me in the morning greeting, a reckless teacher."

Moreover, he sent a photo of a woman's bra to a female colleague, saying, "What kind of anxiety? (Bran-gam?) Shake it off. After all, anxiety is a cover for the heart," and continued making sexually harassing remarks such as "Go to your husband with bare skin," and "I am a senior who cares for juniors." In another post, he wrote, "Nude kimbap must be eaten in a nude state to be nude kimbap," while posting a photo of a naked woman. When the controversy arose, Mr. A deleted all posts from his blog and YouTube channel.

As the controversy grew, the teacher deleted all posts from the blog and YouTube channel they operated.
Photo by A, screenshot of the YouTube channel operated by A.

On the same day, Mr. A issued another statement, saying, "The situation is becoming more serious than I thought. I should be the only one to suffer, but many people at the school are receiving calls, explaining, writing reports, and even the school's sexual violence autonomous committee has been convened to prepare meeting minutes because of me."

He also pleaded with the parent who posted the article, saying, "I can bear my own fault alone, but it is hardest to endure that others are being harmed. I earnestly ask for the post to be deleted as soon as possible."

In response, parent B pointed out, "The problem is not that the homework could have been changed, but that the teacher does not seem to recognize at all that their own reaction is the problem."

On the same day, a Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education official stated, "We reported the suspected sexual harassment behavior of the teacher to 112. Even after being warned for inappropriate greetings, Mr. A assigned underwear washing as weekend homework and used inappropriate expressions, which is embarrassing," adding, "We will conduct a special investigation by the education office and request a police investigation simultaneously, and disciplinary action will be taken based on the audit results."

Experts suggested that disciplining this one teacher will not solve the problem and that the overall gender sensitivity education in our society needs to be reformed.

Jo Jin-kyung, head of the Teen Women's Rights Center, explained, "The teacher appears to have very strong gender role norms. Since it is considered natural that men and women have separate roles, the teacher probably educated the children based on this. The teacher likely thought that girls should naturally do household chores like laundry, which is why this education was given."

Jo added, "Being told that the teacher's 'inappropriate expressions' were pointed out does not mean the problem will fundamentally change. This teacher has strong gender role stereotypes and thinks that girls doing laundry and being called 'sexy' is praise. The teacher probably believed it was their role to educate children this way. This is not something that will change just by disciplining one teacher. We need to change the deeply rooted patriarchal mindset in our society and provide proper gender sensitivity education," emphasizing the point.

She continued, "The Ulsan Office of Education says it provided gender sensitivity education to the teacher, but it is necessary to examine whether this education was properly conducted," and added, "Since this is an issue that has already been disciplined once, we need to investigate why such incidents happened again and correct them."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.