Hidden Recorder in Child's Bag... Court Rules "Not Grounds for Teacher Disciplinary Action"

A court ruling has determined that a teacher's statements secretly recorded by a parent placing a voice recorder in their child's bag cannot be used as grounds for a disciplinary suspension.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Seoul Administrative Court, Administrative Division 9 (Presiding Judge Kim Guk-hyun) recently ruled in favor of teacher A in a lawsuit filed against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education seeking to cancel a three-month suspension.

Seoul Administrative Court

In 2018, A was prosecuted for emotional abuse after making remarks such as "You look like someone who hasn't been attending school. Have you really been going to school?" to a student, and was found guilty in the first trial, subsequently receiving a three-month suspension. These remarks were recorded secretly by the student's parent who placed a voice recorder in the child's bag before sending them to school.

In the first and second trials, the recording was recognized as evidence supporting A's conviction for violating the Child Abuse Punishment Act. The suspension imposed on A was based on this ruling.

However, in January, the Supreme Court ruled that "the defendant's statements during class secretly recorded by the victim child's parent constitute 'non-public conversation'" and deemed the evidence inadmissible, thus remanding the case.

This Supreme Court decision appears to have influenced the trial assessing whether the disciplinary action based on the first trial's ruling was appropriate. The Seoul Administrative Court stated, "Although the recording was not directly used as evidence in the disciplinary procedure, it clearly influenced A's acknowledgment of the disciplinary facts," and added, "A disciplinary penalty that considered the existence and content of the recording without excluding it is difficult to regard as valid on its own."

Furthermore, the court noted that it took into account the petitions submitted by students and parents, as well as A's statements expressing remorse and apology for using excessive language toward the student.

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