By Here is another question for those of you who teach in the Korean schools, is teenage pregnancy something you see much of?:
The National Human Rights Commission said yesterday that any school that forces a student to drop out because she is pregnant is being discriminatory and infringing on her right to an education.
The announcement follows the case of Kim Su-hyeon, 19, a teenager who was forced to drop out during her senior year of high school last year because of a pregnancy.
Though many Western countries allow pregnant high school students to complete their educations, Kim’s case is the first of its kind in Korea to be decided by the commission.
Kim agreed to reveal her real name to the JoongAng Ilbo, commenting that she hoped her case would help other teenage mothers who have been forced to end their studies.
Last April, Kim, who attended Ganghwa Girls High School in Incheon, took a pregnancy test.
The result was devastating.
“I held on to the test kit and just wept,” she recalled. “Everything went black.”
The father: Kim’s boyfriend, Choi Seong-ho, 25 years old at the time.
After some discussion with Choi, Kim decided to have the child but also continue with her high school education. But when teachers learned of the situation, they told Kim to bring her parents to school because she needed to drop out or go to another school. They told Kim that school regulations state that any student who disrupts the moral code of the school with an “unwholesome relationship” is subject to expulsion. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Read the rest at the link, but something I found also of interest was that the school threatened to turn in her boyfriend for having sex with a minor. However, I thought the age of consent in South Korea was 13?
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10:30 am on March 17th, 2010 1
Please forgive the blatant plug for my blog, but after a lot of research on the age of consent in Korea that I outline ref="http://thegrandnarrative.com/2010/01/11/south-korea-age-of-consent/">here, I conclude that while there is no definite source on the internet in Korean or English that says that the age of consent in Korea in 13 (or not), indirect evidence that it is is provided by judges basing their decisions in separate teenage prostitution cases on the "fact" that it is 13.
Still working on finding more definite information though!
1:22 pm on March 17th, 2010 2
Well, I live in a town with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation. Some students graduate from highschool with three kids! And they not only allow them to go to school, but the state provides free daycare service while they go. And my tax money is paying for that. I'd much rather see a system like the one in Korea.
2:54 pm on March 17th, 2010 3
Well, it's ludicrous that these girls were made to quit school.
2:57 pm on March 17th, 2010 4
…I mean, do they honestly believe kids aren't having sex? Seems irrational, don't you think?
3:23 pm on March 17th, 2010 5
The article says she would have to drop out or go to another school, not that whe was forced to drop out completely…
"…But when teachers learned of the situation, they told Kim to bring her parents to school because she needed to drop out or go to another school."
3:56 pm on March 17th, 2010 6
Well good for her. But I hope she got compensated for the whole ordeal.
9:40 pm on March 17th, 2010 7
Well maybe if Korea had a good sex-ed program in their schools, this kid would know when she could and could not get pregnant…but they do not…
11:30 pm on March 17th, 2010 8
What is the fuss about?
Kick her out.
This is the way it should be…
…because when there is no longer any stigma with teen pregnancy, it becomes acceptable… and when things become acceptable, they get done a lot more.
Nobody should be praising this irresponsible slut who wants to force the disruptive consequences of her choices on those around her.
This girl can still "go to another school" where she will still get her education… so all the human rights talk is just… talk.
Appathy followed by acceptance followed by glorification of this kind of thing has already happened in America.
The result?
There are entire cultures in the United States that see teen pregnancy as a status booster… which is a problem which perpetuates itself along with so many other bad social side effects… and it has all been funded by tax dollars and fueled by people, like the ones posting here, who allow instantly-gratifying feel-good sentiments to outweigh any effort to understand a larger picture of far-reaching consequences.
11:58 pm on March 17th, 2010 9
From my discussions with my wife, her family and her friends they actually used to not have sex. Or it was pretty uncommon.
By the way, its my understanding its pretty easy to get morning after pills over the counter in Korea. Given that, this is probably a rare event even with more sexually active teens.
12:00 am on March 18th, 2010 10
I can't find anything definite but the way this article is worded, I get the impression Ganghwa Girls High School is private. Does anyone know for certain?
4:05 pm on March 18th, 2010 11
[...] – ROK DROP also did a posting about pregnant kids in school. Easy AdSense by Unreal VN:F [1.8.5_1061]Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: [...]
5:27 pm on March 19th, 2010 12
Have to agree more with chickenhead on this topic. She can continue school after she has the baby. There needs to be consequences for actions that affect society in negative way. I have nothing against pregnant women married or otherwise but we are talking about young teen pregnancy. We can use our own western liberal methods for example of what happens when the girls are back in school. They are being praised for doing such difficult task thus becoming somewhat star attraction. Being pregnant is tough enough on any women so it may be even tougher on teens. If the young father is also a student his status rises also as a MAN. We are talking about young teens here. I understand the girls also go through some ridicule but why start something that is really unnecessary? I Have to tell you My first wife got pregnant by me at the age 16. Our birthdays are 6 days apart, THIS WAS IN 74. We both quit school and commenced to try to live as married adults. We were children though she was more mature than me. We were divorced at 20 years old. I cannot imagine either of us trying to continue school at that time as we both had to take jobs. We managed to get our GEDs, then later we both got better educations. Our kids had food, and diapers, ya we had another. By time we got divorced we near hated each other. We are now friends. My point is there is allot more to pregnancy than folks realize and it should be kept out of K-12 schooling IMO. BTW In 1974 our country was not nearly affected by the liberals as it came to be in the next 35 years which brings us to our now liberal social structure. I remember back then going to school was no longer an option for us. It was time to take care of business. It happened to other kids also as kids or young teens will have sex. None of those other people continued in school. I Not thinking it was against the law , just something that was looming over you if you got pregnant. CONSEQUENCE! Now there are allot of young teen girls getting pregnant. Most fathers take no responsability. That has been the dynamics of our allowing pregnant teens to continue thrugh middleschool and high school. Wonder what it will be like in Korea in another oh say 20 years. Please do not misunderstand me. I dont feel badly towards these young teens. Just dont think they need to be in middle or high school while they are prenant. Thank you
11:47 pm on March 21st, 2010 13
[...] Gusts of Popular Feeling for an overview and the wider context, and ROK Drop also has a brief comments thread in which comparisons to the US are [...]