Another teacher investigated for allegedly ignoring school violence
Police have opened an investigation into another local teacher on suspicions of neglecting a bullied student, police said Wednesday, two days after launching an unprecedented investigation into a teacher on similar suspicions.
The Gangseo Police Station in western Seoul said the investigation was launched after the father of a middle school student submitted a petition for the investigation into the teacher, who the father said neglected his duties to protect his bullied son.
In the petition, the father said his 13-year-old son is suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after being repeatedly beaten and bullied by school peers.
“The teacher and the school‘s principal failed to prevent the school violence and even tried to cover it up,” police quoted the father as having said in the petition.
Having questioned the father, the police now plan to call in the teacher and the principal for questioning, the police agency said.
The police said seven students from the bullied student’s school were indicted and are awaiting trial on charges of beating and sexually harassing the victim at school and in areas nearby from March through December last year.
The latest police move came after the police booked another school teacher earlier in the week during an investigation into suspicions that the teacher neglected a bullied female middle school student until she took her own life last year in breach of the duty of an educator.
The booked teacher allegedly ignored repeated calls by the victim‘s parents for protection and did not take proper action to stop the violence, leading the girl to jump from an apartment building to her death in December last year.
It marks the first time a teacher has been investigated on suspicions related to a school violence case.
Amid a stinging public outcry against rampant school violence, police said a day earlier they plan to take legal action against teachers who fail to take proper measures to stop violence among students. (Yonhap News)
