“Endure Even When Facing Violence and Verbal Abuse” Gyeongnam Education Union Urges Measures to Protect Teachers' Rights

“In front of the children, I was assaulted and verbally abused by a parent, but I was the one who had to apologize to that parent.”

This is an experience shared by a teacher at a press conference held by the Gyeongnam Education Labor Union on the 25th at the stairs in front of the Gyeongnam Office of Education.

The Gyeongnam Education Labor Union held the press conference to mourn the recently deceased teacher at Seoi Elementary School and to emphasize the importance of restoring teachers' authority.

The union stated, “The entire teaching profession is mourning the death of the Seoi Elementary School teacher,” and appealed, “Are teachers supposed to endure being blocked and verbally abused just because they are teachers, and only cry silently?”

“Is today’s world one where field teachers can hold their convictions as education experts and focus solely on teaching children?” they asked, asserting, “Teachers have become a dumping ground for all kinds of complaints and verbal abuse from parents.”

Lee Chung-soo, chairman of the Gyeongnam Teachers' Union, is urging the establishment of measures to restore teachers' authority.
[Photo by Lee Se-ryeong]

“According to a recent survey, the job satisfaction of teachers is so low that it is embarrassing to even mention the figure,” they said, adding, “Teachers cannot even breathe properly despite being physically hit and verbally abused by children and having their collars grabbed by parents.”

Another teacher who joined the press conference lamented, “It is not difficult to wash a child who urinated during class, change their clothes, or clean up their vomit, but the various demands from parents?such as asking to check diaries, or not to, telling us to feed kimchi or not to feed it?and the reactions when these demands are not met are exhausting.”

“When a parent comes early in the school year and says, ‘I don’t consider last year’s homeroom teacher a real teacher,’ and ‘I won’t tolerate it this year, so keep that in mind,’ it makes me feel a sense of self-loathing,” they added.

The union teachers asked, “Must we continue to suppress ourselves like this?” and requested, “We ask the education authorities and the National Assembly to listen to the voices from the school field so that teachers can focus on education.”

They continued, “When teachers regain their self-esteem, morale rises, and they become happy, children’s self-esteem also rises, and they become healthy and happy,” emphasizing, “Teachers’ self-esteem will improve the quality of education.”

They also urged that mandatory punishment provisions for abusive parents be included in the teacher protection manual to protect teachers’ human rights, students’ right to learn, and parents’ rights, and to promote the growth of the educational community and the practice of happy education with learning.

Chairman Lee Choong-soo said, “When you call a government office or a company, you are informed that the conversation is recorded and that you should not use abusive language or verbal abuse toward the counselor, and to be polite to the person answering the phone, but teachers do not receive such protection,” adding, “Teachers’ human rights are as precious as children’s, so educational reform that respects teachers’ authority is necessary.”

On this day, the teachers’ union said, “Please join forces so that teachers no longer reach the point of ending their own lives because they cannot endure it anymore,” and stated, “Our teachers will unite and tie their shoelaces again. Because we still have the precious children we love dearly.”

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