Teachers participate in a protest demonstration in front of the parliament in Seoul, South Korea on the 4th./Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
2023.09.05 Tue posted at 20:30 JST
Seoul (CNN) The alleged suicide of an elementary school teacher in South Korea has sparked mass demonstrations demanding legal and institutional protection.
Up to 200,000 people attended Saturday’s rally, according to the teachers’ union. An estimated 50,000 teachers took time off from work on Saturday to pay tribute to an elementary school teacher who died in July. Authorities had earlier warned that the strike would be considered illegal.
The Ministry of Education and the education authority in the capital Seoul announced last month that a teacher who was in charge of a first-grade class at an elementary school in Seoul died in July.
The superintendent of the city’s education said immediately afterward that he had chosen to die himself. He acknowledged that “legitimate educational activities are not protected” and called for measures to protect teachers.
Demonstrators wearing black clothes = Seoul, South Korea’s capital, on the 4th
Rumors swirled around the teacher’s death on social media, and it was pointed out that it all started with a fight between children. According to the results of an investigation released by the authorities last month, the three of them met with the parents of two children. The teacher said he received repeated calls from one of the parents and expressed concern about how he knew the phone number. However, it has not been confirmed whether the parent suffered verbal abuse.
From his diary and conversations with his colleagues, it became clear that he was struggling with class management because there was a child with problems, and that he was overwhelmed with work at the beginning of the semester. However, details of the cause of his death were not made public.
In recent years, South Korea has witnessed a series of teachers suffering from unreasonable pressure from their parents, leading to a spate of suicides and growing protests.
Teachers are under great stress because they fear being sued by parents because the Child Abuse Punishment Law, which went into effect in 2014, allows anyone to report suspected abuse without evidence. There is also a point. Demonstrators are calling for the law to be amended.
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2023-09-05 11:30:00
