Yangcheon-gu Teachers Struggle with Violent Students... Should Be Recognized as Line-of-Duty Deaths

Seoul Teachers' Union Publishes Parent Reports
"Students Likely Faced Many Difficulties Due to Education and Complaints"

As a teacher at an elementary school in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, passed away, claims have emerged that the deceased faced significant difficulties due to students in the class exhibiting violent and problematic behavior.

On the 4th, the Seoul Teachers' Union disclosed reports from parents stating that there were students in the 6th-grade class, which the deceased was in charge of this year, who fought with each other or displayed violent behavior.

Earlier, on the 31st of last month, A (38), a 14-year veteran teacher at an elementary school in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, died after falling from an apartment in Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Teacher A was the homeroom teacher for the 6th grade at an elementary school in Yangcheon-gu, was on sick leave until the day before, and the day of death was the last day of the sick leave.

Teacher A returned to work as a subject-specialized teacher in the second semester of last year after parental leave. However, even after taking charge of the 6th grade homeroom in March, A took extended leaves such as annual leave and sick leave, sometimes for more than a month. Teacher A was on sick leave from July 15 to August 31 and was scheduled to start a one-year autonomous training leave thereafter.

On the morning of the 2nd, citizens visited the memorial space for the deceased teacher A in front of an elementary school located in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

In response to media reports suggesting that the cause of death might be parenting stress, the Seoul Teachers' Union released a report contradicting this. The union stated that the informant contacted them after reading the article and believing it to be inaccurate.

According to the parent report, student B in this class frequently exhibited violent behavior, such as threatening friends by lifting chairs in the classroom. Whenever student B acted out, the deceased would take the student out into the hallway for behavioral guidance. The informant's child reportedly said, "The teacher looked very distressed every time they took that child out into the hallway."

There was also a school violence incident involving student B. Student C provoked a fight with another student, and unexpectedly, student B assaulted student C. Although student C's parents raised concerns, no school violence committee meeting was held regarding this incident. Teacher A reportedly asked student B's parents to cooperate with home-based guidance.

Additionally, disputes between male and female students occurred, escalating into group fights between boys and girls across classes, and during subject classes, there were occasions when a female student led a group of students out to the playground.

The Seoul Teachers' Union argued that since the cause of Teacher A's death was due to excessive workload, it is necessary to recognize it as a work-related death. The union stated, "Although it is not known what complaints the deceased received from parents, judging from this incident alone, the teacher must have endured many hardships related to student education and complaints," and urged the education authorities to officially recognize the death as work-related.

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