Special Education Teachers' Union: "Joo Homin's Case Has Crossed the Point of No Return"

"Recognizing Students with Disabilities as Exceptional Cases"

The National Special Education Teachers' Labor Union criticized on the 2nd the guilty verdict against a special education teacher accused of emotionally abusing the son of webtoon artist Joo Ho-min, stating, "Special education and inclusive education in the Republic of Korea have crossed an irreversible river."

Photo by Gyeonggi Teachers' Union

On the same day, the National Special Education Teachers' Labor Union held a press conference in front of the Suwon District Court and pointed out, "On January 11th, the Supreme Court ruled that recordings made by parents during classes cannot be accepted as evidence based on the Communication Privacy Protection Act. Nevertheless, yesterday's ruling excused illegality on the grounds of the student being a 'disabled student.'"

They continued, "This judgment reverses the gradually improving awareness of disabilities and inclusive education in an instant, not only breaking the will of special and general teachers toward inclusive education but also causing avoidance of inclusive classrooms due to the judiciary's misjudgment," adding, "It led to perceiving disabled students as 'separate beings' to whom different logic applies?more difficult, more demanding, more threatening, and unlike other students in our class." They further criticized, "This judicial decision contributed to the public perception of disabled individuals not as beings who complete themselves through learning but as exceptional beings different from ordinary people who must be defended even with illegal materials."

Gyeonggi Teachers' Labor Union Senior Vice Chairman Kwon Seong-jip expressed solidarity, lamenting, "Now teachers cannot help but adopt a defensive attitude, burdened by the possibility of hidden recording devices and ambiguous standards of emotional child abuse, rather than guiding students with educational dedication." He also stated, "This ruling plunges special education teachers, who have guided students with a sense of mission under the principle of inclusive education?that disabled students are equally respected as students and should not be excluded from any educational activities but educated with equal responsibility?into despair," urging, "We request the judiciary to respect the professionalism and specificity of education and make wise rulings to enable proper education in the future."

Earlier, on the 1st, Judge Kwak Yong-heon of the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 9 postponed sentencing with a fine of 2 million won for special education teacher A, who was indicted without detention on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Welfare of Disabled Persons Act. A suspended sentence postpones sentencing for a certain period for minor crimes, and if two years pass from the postponement date, it is effectively treated as if the crime never occurred.

A was accused of emotionally abusing Joo's son (then 9 years old) on September 13, 2022, in a tailored learning class at an elementary school in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, by saying, "You have very bad manners. Ugh, I hate it. I hate you to death. I hate you. I hate you too. Really hate you." Joo and his spouse secretly placed a recording device in their child's bag to record the class and reportedly filed a complaint against A using this as evidence.

While the prosecution and the defendant disputed the legality of the recording, the court recognized the evidentiary value of the recording. The court stated, "Considering that the tailored learning room had no CCTV installed and only a few disabled students attended the defendant's class, making it difficult to confirm emotional abuse circumstances other than the recording due to the nature of verbal emotional abuse, the mother's recording act is recognized as a justifiable act."

Regarding this ruling, the Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA) also condemned it as "a verdict ignoring the earnest demands of 560,000 teachers nationwide." KFTA stated, "This Suwon District Court ruling acknowledged illegal secret recordings, opening Pandora's box that transforms school sites from spaces of empathy and trust between teachers and students into places of distrust and surveillance," lamenting, "We are deeply concerned about how many secret recordings and child abuse reports will follow and how many teachers will suffer, leading to the devastation of educational sites."

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