"Teacher Immunity and Advance Payment of Litigation Costs"… Education Office Announces Priority Measures for 'Teacher Rights Protection'

Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Announces Four Priority Measures
Including Advance Payment of Attorney Fees in Legal Disputes
Unified Civil Complaint Window with Prior Reservation for Teacher Meetings

After the 'Seoi Elementary School Teacher Death Incident,' the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has prepared priority measures to strengthen the protection of teachers' educational activities. They announced plans to ▲demand prompt legislative amendments ▲strengthen protection of teachers from legal disputes ▲establish a unified complaint reception system ▲and prepare guidelines for student conduct management.

On the morning of the 2nd, Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, held a press briefing at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and said, "I deeply feel responsible for the current reality where teachers must summon great courage to teach what is right and proper," adding, "We will stand up the fallen teachers again through measures that teachers can tangibly feel to protect educational activities."

First, they urged the National Assembly to amend laws to explicitly grant immunity to teachers under the current 'Child Abuse Punishment Act' (Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes). They also requested that the 'Elementary and Secondary Education Act' specify the scope of legitimate educational activities, grant school principals the authority to suspend students who infringe on other students' right to learn, and establish grounds for professional counseling and treatment support. They stated that the 'Teacher Status Act (Special Act for the Improvement of Teacher Status)' should be amended to allow immediate separation of students who disrupt educational activities from teachers.

To protect teachers in legal disputes related to educational activities, they promised to implement ▲simplified procedures for litigation cost support ▲expansion of the scope of educational activities through ordinance enactment ▲advance payment of attorney fees at the early stage of litigation ▲strengthening dispute mediation services through the Teacher Safety Mutual Aid and minimizing school burdens ▲and production and distribution of reference materials related to teachers' legal responses.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

They also pledged to establish a unified complaint reception system to prevent complaints from being directly conveyed to teachers. Plans include introducing a 'Teacher Interview Pre-Reservation System,' chatbots, and distributing recording phones to individual teachers. To strengthen school access management, they said they would pilot operation of waiting rooms for complainants at each school.

Additionally, to support student conduct management, they will produce and distribute guidelines such as the 'Student Conduct Management Handbook.' Psychological treatment linkage facilities for students with behavioral problems will be established by each support office, and the deployment of specialized counseling personnel for elementary schools will be expanded.

At the 'Final Report Meeting on Policy Research for Legal Dispute Case Analysis and Support Measures for Teachers' held the previous day, Superintendent Cho expressed a strong will to "support to the maximum extent" regarding support measures such as the Teacher Safety Mutual Aid. Regarding expanding the scope of acts that disrupt educational activities, he also stated, "It is necessary to review how far the legal wording can go to prevent indiscriminate reports and lawsuits under the guise of child abuse."

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