Seoul City toughens special school rules

Seoul City plans to dismiss teachers who are caught physically or verbally abusing people with disabilities in any of its rehabilitation homes.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, they plan to protect the human rights of people with disabilities and prevent incidents with thorough surveys by experts and constant monitoring.

The capital prepared the guidelines after a recent box-office hit that sparked widespread public outrage against sex crimes and light punishment for offenders.

According to officials the city plans to prevent another “Dogani” incident and stop all future incidents of human rights violations through five-point prevention measures for centers that receive support from the capital.

According to the measures, those caught infringing on the human rights of people with disabilities staying at such centers will be relieved on the spot and reported to local authorities.

In severe cases the city also has the authority to shut down the facility in question.

The city will operate monitoring officials within facilities including people with disabilities, family members and social rehabilitation teachers.

Third-party monitoring officials will include human rights experts, and civil servants.

Other measures include eight hours of mandatory human rights education a year, and surveys twice a year.

Those with disabilities are also given the means to report violations through the internet, which will then contact district officials.

According to officials, a center head and all of his employees have already been dismissed after being found to have violated the rights of its students at a persons’ with disabilities rehabilitation clinic in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. The center director was found to have physically abused and discriminated against some 10 people residing at the center over the course of one year.

“We will strictly monitor (the centers) to ensure that not a single violation of human rights goes unpunished,” said Seoul official Kim Kyung-ho.

The film “Dogani,” whose English title is “The Crucible,” is based on the true story of teachers at a school for the disabled in Gwangju who abused hearing-impaired students for five years starting in 2000.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)