By Korea Beat has a link up and a picture of the sexual harassment of a music teacher by male high school students:
The Korea Herald has an article on this as well:
Controversy is escalating after a video clip in which a young female teacher was sexually harassed by a high school student in a classroom in Seoul circulated on the internet on Tuesday.
Some teachers’ unions have expressed deep concern over the “decline in teachers’ authority,” calling for a thorough inquiry into the case and strict disciplinary action for the students involved.
“It is an obvious encroachment of teacher’s authority and a sexual harassment. … This clearly illustrates that the students’ respect for and confidence in teachers have been dissipating,” the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations said in a statement.
Citizens have also voiced displeasure, saying that strong measures need to be crafted to prevent a repeat of the case.
In the 45-second clip, a second-year high school student, surnamed Kim, put his arm around the shoulders of a part-time music teacher and said, “Can we go out together?” Kim repeatedly harassed the teacher even though she expressed displeasure.
The scene was recorded by another student, surnamed Ryu, with his mobile phone on July 6. Although the teacher told Ryu to delete the recording, he posted it on his homepage with the title, “hitting on a female teacher,” the next day.
The video clip started circulating on local major internet portals Tuesday, which deleted it Wednesday upon demand from the high school and the Seoul education office. The high school has decided to bar the two students from taking classes for 10 days.
Some people said that the country’s educational system, which makes students focus too much on obtaining high scores to enter top-tier universities rather than personal development, might be a partial cause. [Korea Herald]
I couldn’t tell you if this is a sign of anything considering I have never dealt with Korean high schools students. When I was last stationed in Korea I volunteered my time teaching English at an elementary school in Uijongbu and found the kids very well behaved. Commenters over at Korea Beat who have taught in Korean high school classrooms believe this incident is a symptom of chaos that occurs between class periods. So has any other English teacher in Korea seen this type of chaos as well.
7:32 am on September 17th, 2009 1
Every day for the last 5 years.
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11:10 am on September 17th, 2009 2
I’ve heard that classroom dynamics have shifted dramatically in Korea over the last decade or so. Apparently there were a series of education reforms attempting to move Korean classrooms away from the strict, traditional Japanese-colonial era model which basically beat students into submission to a more Westernized form. Combine that with the radical social liberalization in Korea experienced over the same period, and its no wonder something like this has happened.
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11:18 am on September 17th, 2009 3
I don’t know. I can’t get a good look at her body with everything all pixelated.
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8:09 pm on September 17th, 2009 4
Take away teachers’ ability to enforce discipline (which many were known to abuse)…
Inject the My Little Snowflake Can Do No Wrong” parental mentality…
Reinforce the idea that it is the schools’, hagwons’ and tutors’ responsibility to educate the children with little-to-no parental involvement except to yell, “Study more!”…
Top it off with the acceptance (and general promotion) of urban/gansta/thug/hiphop culture (notice student’s clothing and posture)…
Sit around and wonder how something like this can possibly happen.
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12:55 am on September 18th, 2009 5
I don’t get the Korean concept of harassment. The teacher hold the power in the relationship. The teacher can, at a minimum, kick the student out of class, or punish the student. What can the student do? If he grabs her, its assult.
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9:17 am on September 18th, 2009 6
A couple of things come to mind.
I thought all high-schoolers were required to wear uniforms.
If you’ve ridden a bus or metro train recently, you wouldn’t be surprised that teens here have mostly lost their traditional respect for adults.
Maybe he was recently exposed to the David Lee Roth ‘Hot For Teacher’ video.
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