School bullying victims commit suicide

Ministry measures call for dispatch of counselors, strengthening monitors


The recent suicides of school bullying victims in Daegu have shocked the nation, especially since their parents and teachers didn’t even notice what they had been going through.

Criticism has mounted over schools’ negligence and prevention of school violence has been called for by parents and education experts.

A 14-year-old, who leapt to his death last week, left a suicide note detailing the abuse he suffered.

The boy, surnamed Kim, listed the things that two classmates forced him to do, including playing an online game using their IDs and punishing him when he failed to meet their expectations by wrapping a radio cord around his neck and dragging him, as well as forcing him to eat crumbs off the floor.

The Daegu Police said last week that they are considering whether to issue an arrest warrant for the two boys who bullied Kim.

Earlier this month, a video recorded on the surveillance camera of an elevator also shocked many as it showed a high school girl going up to the rooftop to take her own life. She never came downstairs.

One out of 10 teenagers between the ages 15 to 19 thought about committing suicide at least once in the past year, according to the 2011 national figure on teenagers.

“There are many teenagers who call us about their bullying problems and many of them say they actually try to commit suicide, but most of them never succeed due to fear,” said a counseling teacher on condition of anonymity.

With the recent outbreak of bullying problems, the Education Ministry announced a set of measures to deal with it on Sunday including dispatching 1,800 counselors to schools to make student counseling available at all times, while designating personnel at regional education offices to function as support staff.

The ministry also said they will check school bullying twice a year at elementary, middle to high schools to create an environment in which students and schools feel free to talk about bullying problem and protect the victims.

But experts say the measures the government has proposed are 20/20 hindsight and are determined by budget guidelines and short-sighted ideas.

“I see many of the counseling teachers dispatched to each school as not fulfilling students’ needs as some lack proper knowledge in student counseling or are preoccupied by other work that schools assign to them because they don’t really understand what the teachers can do for their students,” said the teacher.

Education experts also call for the government to invest a large amount of the budget into solving school violence and dispatching qualified counselors to all schools from elementary to secondary schools.

By Lee Woo-young

(wylee@heraldcorp.com)