South Korean teachers protest bullying by parents, students amid suicide surge
Tens of thousands of South Korean teachers have staged nationwide protests to demand improved rights, amid widespread mistreatment by parents and unruly students that has led colleagues to take their own lives.
About 50,000 teachers took part in a rally in the capital, Seoul on Monday to mark the 49th day since the death of a 23-year-old elementary school teacher, which is an important day under Buddhist traditions.
The teacher was found dead at her school in the capital in an apparent suicide after reportedly expressing anxiety over complaints from abusive parents.
An estimated 70,000 teachers also took part in similar rallies in different cities across the country on Monday.
Many teachers took leave to attend the demonstrations and some schools were reportedly temporarily closed, despite warnings of the authorities, who declared the teachers’ collective action to disrupt classes illegal.
“Teacher rights are just as important as student rights. We too are being bullied by parents and students, and this must stop,” an elementary school teacher named Koh told the Guardian on Monday.
Nationwide protests have rocked the country every weekend since the elementary school teacher died in July, leading up to a rally last Saturday which was attended by as many as 200,000 teachers.
The Monday protests came as reports in recent days of several other apparent teacher suicides have further fuelled outrage over the harassment of teachers.
Everyone Together As One, the group leading the protests, said “We will protect them (the teachers) and make changes so that not one more teacher chooses to take their life.”
The education ministry is pushing for legislation to ensure “legitimate educational activities are distinguished from child abuse crimes.”
On Sunday, the ministry blamed previous governments for “overemphasizing” students’ human rights over teacher rights, which it said led to the rise of “the number of indiscriminate child abuse reports.”
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday ordered officials to listen to the teachers’ demands and work to protect their rights, according to his office.
As of June, 100 schoolteachers had committed suicide in South Korea since 2018, 57 of them worked at elementary schools, government data showed.
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