Education Ministry Also to Prepare Measures Next Month to Eradicate School Violence Amid Jeong Soon-shin's Son Bullying Controversy

by Yoo Byeongdon

Published 27 Feb.2023 13:48(KST)

The Ministry of Education has promised to establish measures to eradicate school violence in relation to the son of lawyer Jeong Soon-shin, who was appointed as the head of the National Investigation Headquarters but stepped down after just one day, being involved in a school violence incident.

On the 27th, during a regular briefing with the press corps, the Ministry of Education stated, "Since the Act on the Prevention and Countermeasures against School Violence was established in 2012 and more than 10 years have passed, a comprehensive review is necessary," adding, "Due to recent incidents, social concerns and the need for improvements have been raised, and we will discuss those aspects."

The Ministry of Education prepares an implementation plan to eradicate school violence around the end of March every year. This year, it is expected that related measures will be strengthened in response to the repercussions of the incident involving lawyer Jeong's son.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Previously, Jeong's son, while attending a well-known autonomous private high school in 2017, subjected a classmate who lived in the same dormitory room to verbal abuse for eight months. The following year, after a reconsideration and a second reconsideration by the School Violence Countermeasure Committee, he was transferred to another school. Jeong's side filed an administrative lawsuit to cancel the transfer order, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, ultimately losing the case in April 2019.

During this process, it was pointed out that the victim student was exposed to secondary victimization for a long period, as Jeong's son only transferred schools in February 2019, one year after the transfer order was issued.