Seocho-gu Deceased Teacher's Family Applies for 'Line of Duty' Status... "The Deceased Reached Extreme Stress"

Reasons such as NICE tasks and parent complaints
Determination of line-of-duty death by the Ministry of Personnel Management

The family of a teacher who took their own life at Seo-i Elementary School in Seocho-gu, Seoul, has requested the education office to recognize the death as a work-related death, stating that the deceased was under extreme stress due to school duties.

On the 31st, the family submitted a claim for 'work-related death survivor benefits' for the deceased to the Gangnam Seocho Education Support Office in Seoul. These benefits are paid to the family when a public official dies during their service due to work-related injury or illness, or after retirement due to such injury or illness.

Moon Yoo-jin, the family’s legal representative, stated, "The tasks assigned to the deceased, including managing problematic students and handling the Education Administration Information System (NEIS), exceeded what an ordinary teacher could handle alone. The deceased’s work-related stress reached an extreme level, and at that moment, the 'pencil incident' occurred. Following this, continuous complaints from parents made it impossible for the deceased to cope."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

She added, "The fear the deceased felt from the pencil incident was evident in their reaction to parent complaints received on their personal mobile phone, describing it as 'creepy' and showing signs of restlessness. As a result, the deceased was found dead in the classroom around 9 p.m. on July 17, five days after the pencil incident, without having left work," she criticized.

With the family’s submission of the claim on this day, the Government Employees Pension Service and the Ministry of Personnel Management will verify the facts, and the Ministry of Personnel Management will make the final decision on whether to recognize the death as work-related through a review committee.

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