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Deputy Prime Minister Lee Ju-ho and City and Provincial Superintendents to Hold Meeting on the 12th
Discussion on Measures to Prevent Recurrence

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, will meet with the superintendents of education from 17 cities and provinces regarding the murder of an elementary school student in Daejeon.

According to the Ministry of Education on the 12th, Deputy Prime Minister Lee will attend the ‘Meeting of City and Provincial Superintendents of Education for Strengthening School Safety’ held at the government complex in the afternoon to mourn the late Kim Ha-neul and seek measures to prevent recurrence.

Deputy Prime Minister Lee said, "Schools should be the safest places, so this incident is indescribably tragic," adding, "We recognize the gravity of the matter seriously and will prepare fundamental measures to ensure that such a heartbreaking incident never happens again."

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The attendees expressed their intention to carefully review student safety measures ahead of the new semester. Management plans for teachers who have difficulty performing their duties due to mental illnesses will also be discussed. This comes after it was revealed that the perpetrator teacher (48) suffered from depression.

Each education office operates a ‘Committee for Reviewing Teachers with Illnesses’ in relation to this, but the Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education, where this incident occurred, has not convened the committee even once since 2021. In a briefing on the 11th, the Daejeon Office of Education stated, "Since the teacher only took a single leave of absence, there was no reason to hold the committee." This has been criticized as ‘nominal and ineffective’ because it could be seen as missing a real risk due to regulations. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also established rules for the Committee for Reviewing Teachers with Illnesses in early 2021, involving medical experts, legal experts, human rights experts, teacher organizations, and parent groups, but it has been revealed that no reviews have been conducted since the rules were established. The Gwangju Office of Education has mandated that professional medical staff must diagnose teachers when they take or return from leave, and the Busan Office of Education announced that at least two staff members will work after 6 p.m. to strengthen the safety of both staff and children.

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Meanwhile, the perpetrator teacher had exhibited strange behavior several times before this incident, and it was revealed that the Daejeon Office of Education conducted an investigation at the school just before the incident but failed to prevent it. The teacher took a six-month leave of absence in December last year due to depression but returned to work after submitting a doctor’s note stating that he was "able to carry out daily activities" after only 21 days. However, five days before the incident, on the 5th, he damaged school property, and on the 6th, he assaulted a fellow teacher who spoke to him. On the morning of the 10th, the day of the incident, a supervisor from the Daejeon Office of Education visited the school but did not meet the teacher and instead advised the principal and vice principal to encourage the teacher to take annual or sick leave before leaving. This raises regretful questions about whether the accident could have been prevented if the authorities and school had responded more proactively.

According to the Daejeon Western Police Station, after committing the act, the perpetrator teacher locked the door of the crime scene (the audiovisual room storage) and said to Ha-neul’s grandmother, "She’s not here, I don’t know," when confronted. The police stated that the teacher testified, "He gave a book to the last child with the thought of dying together with any child and led them to the audiovisual room."

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