Controversy over Alleged Cover-up of School Violence by Presidential Advisor Lee Dong-gwan’s Son: Former Teacher Raises Suspicions of External Pressure

Amid the growing controversy surrounding the allegations of school violence by Lee Dong-gwan, the 28-year-old special adviser for foreign cooperation at the President’s Office, who is being discussed as the next chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, teacher Jeon Jeon Won-won, who first raised the suspicion, said that the special advisor’s son’s ‘violent act’ was thoroughly investigated even during the transfer process. raised suspicions that it was covered up. Circumstances supporting Lee’s suspicion of external pressure were also presented in detail. In a phone call on the 12th, a former teacher (Hana High, on leave) said, “When students at Hana High transferred to a school, they had to write a letter of reason for moving in and out, which was written by parents and approved by the principal.” I heard that at the time of the month transfer, I wrote in the related documents that I was transferring because it was difficult to adapt because the English subject was difficult.” If true, he pretended to be a natural transfer on paper, even though he had an unwanted transfer because of an act of violence against his classmate. In 2012, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s transfer and admission guidelines stipulate that, when transferring from an autonomous public/private high school to a general high school, ‘students who have obtained transfer consent from their school principal’ and all their families must reside in Seoul. In order to transfer schools, there is no choice but to go through the process of revealing the reason to the existing school, but at this time, it seems that academic problems were left as the reason. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education responded to the National Assembly, saying, “The reason for moving in and out is not kept after the preservation period (3 years for schools, 5 years for the Office of Education) has passed.” The reason the special advisor’s son went to a school he didn’t want was because of an act of violence against his classmate. According to the 2015 Seoul City Council meeting minutes of the Special Committee for Administrative Affairs Investigation to Investigate the Suspicion of Preferential Treatment of Hanago, the principal of Hanago attended the city council and said, “In addition to the time of the ‘2nd one-man’ (who learned boxing), (Lee’s son i) It is said that he did something to the children. He said he did it as a joke, but it became a problem because the other students were harmed.” I heard that even though he and his parents said, ‘I’m going to transfer, please let me go after the first semester,’ but in the middle of the semester, I was advised to transfer.” Regarding the son of this special advisor, not even a school violence committee dealing with students’ violent behavior, nor a leading committee dealing with misconduct by students outside of school violence, was held. If other reasons were also written in the documents related to the transfer, there would be no trace left in the official or unofficial documents. Regarding the suspicion of outside pressure, the former teacher also revealed that Kim Seung-yu, former chairman of Hanago, told the story. At a meeting with former teachers in August 2015, Chairman Kim conveyed the situation at the time of 2012 to former teachers, saying, ‘I talked to Mr. Lee Dong-gwan in 2012’ and ‘Mr. said to have spoken At the same time, Chairman Kim said to the former teacher, “Is punishment really good?” Regarding the recent announcement of a statement by one of the victim students, former teacher said, “One of the recent victims asked me not to be stigmatized as a victim of school violence, but there are at least four victims. He pointed out that we should also listen to what the silence of victims and potential victims who are still silent in pain means.” At the same time, he added, “It is a watering method that obfuscates the essence of the case,” regarding the voices that attacked, saying that some of them were “teacher teachers” and “revelation of political purposes.” Byungchan Koh, staff reporter kick@hani.co.kr