Amidst the rising concern about abusive treatment faced by teachers all across South Korea, a viral video has taken the internet by storm.
Teachers in Seoul joined a rally in September demanding better rights after the death of a colleague | AFP
On November 22, SBS News reported on an incident caught on video where a high school student was seen aggressively arguing with her teacher. The two stood in the hallway as other students giggled at the sight while recording it.
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When the teacher told the student to return to her classroom, she retorted, saying she isn’t someone who can be treated as he pleases.
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Why are you yelling at me? I’m someone’s precious daughter, too, aren’t I? I’m not someone you can walk all over like this.
— The student in the clip
She proceeds to accuse the teacher of pulling her hair, to which he explains that he was only trying to grab her bag, but her hair was entangled with it. But the student keeps accusing him of grabbing her hair. When the teacher notices the other students recording it gleefully, he says, “Are you enjoying this? Is it fun? Keep going.” To this, the girl loudly responds, “Are you having fun? Did you enjoy grabbing my hair?”
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The incident ends after the teacher walks away, saying he would be talking to the committee about this, and she follows him, saying, “Go ahead.”
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Teacher: I will talk about this to the committee.
Student: Go ahead.
According to the report of SBS News, the situation arose after the student went to the cafeteria in the middle of her class and got caught by the teacher. According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, the video is from March last year, filmed at a high school in their province.
The incident was ultimately not reported to the teachers’ rights protection committee. The student resolved the misunderstanding with the teacher in the video and continued her education until she had to drop out for personal reasons.
However, the video has drawn strict criticism from netizens over how the teacher was treated. Many called for the student to be punished, while others felt the parents should be held accountable.
| @sbsnews8/YouTube “Parents, please come to your senses.” “The school board of education and all should properly punish the student for this.” “Instead of protecting the teachers’ rights, we need to strengthen them.” “It doesn’t matter if it’s a teacher or a student that’s doing something wrong. They should be punished appropriately rather than just being brushed under the carpet.” “It must have been tough for the teacher to hold it in…In case he had said some harsh words even by mistake, he would have been accused of psychological child abuse. I hope the teacher remains strong. I wish they would include information about this incident on that child’s school records.”
