Why school bullying hits a raw nerve

In South Korea today, school bullies are public enemy No. 1.

On TV screens nationwide, viewers are enthralled by the meticulously plotted revenge of a high school bullying victim.

In real-life politics, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s initial pick for the head of the National Office of Investigation, former senior prosecutor Chung Sun-sin, has been under scrutiny for weeks following revelations his son verbally abused a classmate years ago.

It has been some time already since the TV and sports industries witnessed a wave of #MeToo-style revelations in which the victims came forward to expose the abusive behavior of stars from their past.

Out of all the violence and injustice happening in our world today -- from military invasions to crimes against humanity -- some might wonder, why do people get so angry over school bullies?

The Korea Herald spoke to several experts who offered a mix of universal and Korea-specific explanations.

Delayed justice

In the past, when awareness of school violence remained low, justice was often not served in bullying cases.

Koo Jeong-woo, a sociology professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, says people react particularly strongly when “perpetrators are on the fast track to success, whereas the victims have to endure the pain of the past."

“Victims of past school bullying cases get hurt once more when they watch their vicious bullies on TV, especially those who never got punished or sincerely apologized for their wrongdoings,” he said.

Under the Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools, bullies can be ordered to make a written apology to victims, be banned from contacting, threatening or retaliating against victims and be ordered to switch classes. In more extreme cases, they may face suspension or expulsion from school.

But the lack of a legal authority presiding over disciplinary procedures often results in delayed punishment, said Choi Woo-sung, director of the School Violence Prevention Research Institute.

“Many bullies and their guardians try to avoid punishment from school violence prevention committees under education offices by objecting to the committee’s decisions through legal proceedings, including administrative litigation and injunction requests largely to prevent the bullying history from being included on their student records,” Choi said.

How former prosecutor Chung, the now-withdrawn candidate for the police's investigation chief, reacted to his son's bullying case backs up Choi's view.

When the school decided to transfer Chung's son to another school, Chung used his legal expertise to challenge the decision. He filed an administrative lawsuit and took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually the court sided with the school and Chung’s son had to switch schools, but that came only after the victim had also quit.

The number of administrative appeals lodged by accused school bullies to fight disciplinary orders has been on the increase from 587 in 2020 and 932 in 2021 to 1,133 last year, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Education.

Collective memory of violent school days

Shin Tae-seob, a professor of education at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, has a more Korea-specific explanation for the collective fury over school bullying.

He points to a culture of violence that was prevalent in school until not so long ago.

“School violence was a serious, chronic problem in South Korea that spanned many generations. Many Korean adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s had experienced an authoritative learning environment where corporal punishment was accepted and rampant,” Shin said.

"There was also low public awareness of the seriousness of violence among students as well, with many teachers and parents treating school bullying merely as fistfights between friends.”

A law on school violence was first enacted in 2004. A major revision in 2012 introduced a set of guidelines for handling such incidents.

Corporal punishment was completely banned in 2011.

“Watching news about children suffering from school bullying may ignite many adults’ past traumatic memories, leading to strong public anger,” Shin added.

Long-lasting scars

A series of studies have shown that exposure to school violence at an early age can have serious lifelong consequences for victims both emotionally and clinically, leading to greater public awareness on the issue.

A recent study found that more than half of 353 school violence victims, aged 20-27, had thought of suicide, while 13 percent had actually attempted suicide.

The survey was conducted in September 2020 by a joint research team of education experts from Sunchon National University and Yuhan University.

College students who experienced school violence were two times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and also reported more physical symptoms such as dizziness or chest pain without clear reasons, the report said.

Some experts claim that verbal abuse could leave students more vulnerable to psychological disorders as they grow up.

“Young adults who were repeatedly abused verbally in childhood had weaker connections in two areas of the brain -- the hippocampus and the amygdala -- which perform functions in the processing of emotional reactions, fear and the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory. This change in key regions of the brain increases victims’ chances of getting chronic mental illnesses,” said Ko Min-soo, a psychiatry professor at Korea University Hospital in Guro, southern Seoul.

Revenge outside of the system

For victims who watched their school bullies get off scot-free, public condemnation could be seen as a "last resort" for achieving justice, according to professor Koo.

"Many celebrities have been hit particularly hard by school violence accusations popping up in various online communities and social media. By taking advantage of the internet's social virality, victims try to take their assailants to the court of public opinion," he said.

According to a recent survey conducted with 65 psychiatrists by the Korean School Psychiatry Association, a group of doctors specializing in mental health problems, 78.5 percent said they had treated victims of school violence. They said that nearly 90 percent of the victims thought of getting revenge against the bullies, with nearly half of them even having specific plans.

"Victims' stories resonate with many people, leading to a collective fury over school violence because it is a matter of fairness and social justice, universal values upheld by our society," Koo said.

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If you’re thinking about self-harm or suicide, contact the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s helpline 1393, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.