Daekwang and Seojin Girls' High School Students Face Dangerous Routes to and from School

Civic Group: "Students' Right to Learn and Safety at Risk... Prompt Resolution Needed"

An educational civic group in Gwangju demanded on the 5th, "The Gwangju Office of Education must promptly resolve the safety issues of the school routes for Daekwang Girls' High School and Seojin Girls' High School."

Gwangju Office of Education building.

The civic group "Citizens' Coalition for a Society Without Academic Cliques" stated in a press release on the same day, "Due to a dispute over the land for the school route, students' right to education and their safety are being seriously threatened."

The real estate company that owns part of the school route land for Daekwang and Seojin Girls' High Schools proposed a land exchange to the school foundation Hongbok Academy, but negotiations broke down. Afterwards, in November last year, the real estate company forcibly installed a container on the school route. As a result, students are commuting to and from school in dangerous conditions.

Hongbok Academy is attempting to recruit financial contributors to normalize the foundation, but progress has stalled due to a lack of agreement with former board members. The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education has also held task force meetings and a normalization committee to discuss the issue, but has yet to present a clear solution.

The Nam-gu District Office of Gwangju plans to impose a compulsory execution fine of around 3 million won on the container, which has been classified as an illegal structure, but questions have been raised about the effectiveness of this measure. The Nambu Fire Station has only inspected the fire lane and stated that it is difficult to take compulsory action.

The civic group asserted, "The attitude of the Office of Education and related agencies, claiming 'there is nothing we can do,' is no different from dereliction of duty," and urged, "A public-private consultative body should be formed as soon as possible to resolve the safety issues of the school route." The group also called on former board members of Hongbok Academy to "fulfill their responsibilities as educators and cooperate in normalizing the school."

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