Separating Sexual Offense Teachers and Students... Itanhee Proposes the 'Sexual Offense Clean School Act'

Lee Tan-hee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, is questioning during the National Assembly Education Committee's audit on national universities in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Gangwon at the Kyungpook National University Global Plaza in Buk-gu, Daegu on the 19th. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-eun] On the 21st, Lee Tan-hee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, officially proposed the "Sexual Crime Clean School Act" (an amendment to the Act on the Prevention and Countermeasures of School Violence, the Private School Act, and the Education Officials Act) to immediately separate students from teachers involved in sexual crimes such as School Me Too and the Nth Room case, and to prevent such teachers from returning to the classroom.

The bill includes provisions to immediately separate perpetrators (including teachers) and victim students in cases of violence, group bullying, and sexual violence within the same school; to strengthen the composition of disciplinary committees for private school teachers to the level of public schools and include parental participation in the review process; and to exclude teachers involved in sexual misconduct against students from homeroom teacher duties.

According to data received by Rep. Lee from 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide, among 1,093 teachers who committed sexual misconduct such as sexual violence, forced molestation, confinement, and sexual harassment from 2011 to last August, 524?nearly half?have returned to the classroom. However, current laws lack relevant regulations, so there is no way to prevent teachers who committed such offenses from returning to the same school and serving as homeroom teachers.

Rep. Lee particularly pointed out that in private schools, compared to public schools, there are no regulations requiring the participation of victim students’ parents in disciplinary committees or gender ratio rules, resulting in lower punishment levels for offending teachers.

As of last year, exclusionary disciplinary actions (dismissal or removal) were 36% in private schools, 10 percentage points lower than the 46% in public schools. Due to the ineffectiveness of disciplinary measures, the number of sexual misconduct cases increased 8.6 times, from 12 cases in 2014 to 104 cases last year.

Rep. Lee said, "The most urgent principle in sexual misconduct cases is the immediate separation of perpetrators and victims, but this is not well observed in schools, and there are even situations where victim students have to face offending teachers again after disciplinary actions. For victim students, while punishment is important, it is urgent to immediately escape the mental distress caused by confronting the perpetrator."

She also stated, "School Me Too is not just an issue for female victim students. Male students who witness teachers openly harassing women may think, 'In our country, teachers can behave like that. It must not be a big problem.' The fact that sexual harassment incidents by male students against female teachers have begun to occur is evidence of this." She emphasized, "To instill proper values in students and create safe schools, legal amendments are necessary."

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