'Political Bias Controversy' Inheon High School... Human Rights Commission Says "Not a Human Rights Violation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The National Human Rights Commission has concluded that it is difficult to view the controversy over 'political bias education' by teachers at Inheon High School in Gwanak-gu, Seoul as a violation of student human rights.

The Human Rights Commission recently dismissed all complaints filed by conservative groups such as the Liberty Korea Patriotic Corps, which requested an investigation into six cases of political bias by Inheon High School and whether student human rights were violated.

This issue began when it was revealed that during a school marathon event in 2019, some teachers forced students to chant anti-Japanese slogans and reprimanded students who expressed critical opinions about former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk during class by saying, "Are you an Ilbe member?"

However, the Human Rights Commission judged that regarding the forced chanting of anti-Japanese slogans, "students voluntarily selected the slogans, and there is no circumstance suggesting that students who did not chant on the day of the event were disadvantaged." Also, the statement "Cho Kuk news is fake news" was dismissed due to lack of objective evidence to consider it as a remark made by the respondent teacher Kim. Kim’s comment, "Are you an Ilbe member?" while questioning a student's lie was deemed not to require remedial measures as Kim immediately apologized to the student.

Other complaints were also dismissed due to lack of objective evidence or because the students' personal rights and fundamental rights were not infringed to a significant degree. However, separate from the dismissal decision, the Human Rights Commission pointed out that some teachers' remarks, such as chanting anti-Japanese slogans and saying "Cho Kuk news is fake news, so do not believe it," were "highly inappropriate."

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