Cho Hee-yeon "Considering Pilot Operation of Dispute Mediation Committee"... Promise to Expand Support for Teacher Insurance and More

"51 out of 1,770 Teachers Have Lawsuit Experience"
Proposal to Include 'Intentional False Accusation' in Legislation
Education Office: "Considering Establishing Teacher Rights Protection Committee and Support Office"

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it will consider establishing a separate external body called the 'Dispute Mediation Committee' to support teachers in resolving legal disputes. They also mentioned plans to discuss expanding the scope of support, including the Teacher Safety Mutual Aid and Teacher Liability Insurance.

On the 1st, Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, made these remarks at the 'Final Report Meeting on Policy Research for Analyzing Legal Dispute Cases Involving Teachers and Support Measures by the Education Office,' held at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education School Health Promotion Center.

Superintendent Cho stated, "We must now move beyond democratic schools where individual freedoms and rights are sufficiently guaranteed, and create community-oriented schools. While ensuring individual freedoms and rights, everyone must exercise restraint and adopt a perspective that prevents abuse infringing on others' freedoms and rights, and develop new legal supplementary measures accordingly."

The Financial and Real Estate Regulation Research Institute, commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education for this study, announced that after analyzing 1,188 legal dispute rulings involving teachers over the past five years, criminal cases accounted for 71.6%. It was reported that nearly all of these cases involved teachers as defendants.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Additionally, according to a survey conducted by the research team targeting 1,770 Seoul teachers, 51 respondents reported having experienced legal disputes as parties involved. Notably, among these, 23 cases resulted in teacher victories or acquittals, which was twice the number of cases resulting in losses or convictions (12 cases).

Jung Woong-chae, the lead researcher, cited examples of lawsuits involving teachers, saying, "School violence cases are not matters of educational activity infringement. However, from the teacher's perspective, even after thinking the lawsuit was over, there was difficulty when a new lawsuit was filed seven years later despite having been transferred to another school due to a position change."

He pointed out practical issues such as the long-term negative impact on educational duties during the litigation process and the inability to request support for educational infringement acts when accused or reported for child abuse or school violence.

The researchers proposed that a separate dispute mediation procedure is necessary, distinct from the current Teacher Rights Protection Committee, to resolve problems experienced by both teachers and parents during disputes. Researcher Jung said, "Currently, only the school principal can convene the Teacher Rights Protection Committee, and parents requesting mediation already perceive the school as the opposing party, which creates a problem in having to request the school side. Activating the Dispute Mediation Committee to allow consultations with (external) lawyers could reduce the proportion of unjust complaints."

They also suggested adding a clause to the laws and notifications defining 'educational activity infringement acts' under the Teacher Status Act (Special Act for the Improvement of Teacher Status) to include 'acts of clearly unjust dispute filing,' such as false accusations. Furthermore, they recommended expanding the scope of teacher liability insurance and considering measures to provide advance support for litigation costs.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In response, Superintendent Cho said, "The Dispute Mediation Committee was very impressive," and added, "If there is legislation such as ordinances for pilot operation by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, we will take it into consideration." He further expressed curiosity about whether support would be possible if the Teacher Safety Mutual Aid service were expanded to assist teachers who lose lawsuits, stating, "I want to support to the maximum extent."

He also showed a positive stance on expanding the scope of educational activity infringement under the Teacher Status Act, saying, "It is necessary to review how far legal wording can go to prevent indiscriminate reports and lawsuits related to child abuse."

A Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education official explained, "The Dispute Mediation Committee is a sufficiently feasible option," and added, "The education office is discussing a draft plan to place the Teacher Rights Protection Committee not only at the education office headquarters and each school but also at each education support office."

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