A middle school student angered by disciplinary guidance posted the personal information of four teachers, including her homeroom teacher, along with abusive language on social media. The teachers have requested that a teachers' rights protection committee be convened.
According to the Gyeonggi Province Office of Education and the Gyeonggi Federation of Teachers' Associations, a first-year middle school student in Gyeonggi Province, identified only as A, posted images of the teachers' faces, names and contact details on Instagram and Threads on the evening of the 17th.
The posts also included insults such as "crazy b----," "old b----," "drop dead" and "disgusting."
Education authorities believe A filmed the teachers on the morning of the 16th, the day before the posts appeared, after receiving disciplinary guidance at school over movement between classes. Authorities determined that A then captured portions of the footage and wrote posts criticizing the teachers.
The posts were deleted on the 20th, three days after they were uploaded.
A had previously been suspended from attending school during the first semester over another infringement of teachers' rights. At that time, A's parents reported the teachers on suspicion of child abuse.
"Police who reviewed the case determined it was guidance in accordance with school rules and said they could not register it as a case," an official at the Gyeonggi teachers' federation said. "These parents had also reported a teacher for child abuse in the past, but the case was closed without even being formally registered for investigation, on the grounds that it could not be considered abuse."
The teachers affected by the latest incident have asked the district education support office to convene a teachers' rights protection committee.
"Publishing teachers' personal information and hurling abuse at them is bad enough, but pressuring them with false child abuse reports over legitimate disciplinary guidance shakes the legitimate educational authority of the classroom at its roots," said Lee Sang-ho, president of the Gyeonggi Federation of Teachers' Associations.
The Gyeonggi Province Office of Education has assigned a teachers' rights officer to the affected teachers and is reviewing specific support measures.
