Authorities have ruled that a fixed-term teacher's action of filming a classroom for about five seconds with a smartphone to quiet disruptive middle school students constituted "emotional abuse," resulting in measures such as a principal's warning and a police report.
In early July, a complaint was filed with education authorities alleging that teacher A, a fixed-term teacher at a middle school in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, had committed child abuse during class.
According to the investigation, teacher A, who had been working at the school since last May, filmed the classroom two to three times with a smartphone after students repeatedly made noise and ignored instructions during class.
The footage recorded by teacher A was reportedly around five seconds long each, and at the time, the teacher reportedly said, "I will send the recorded video to the parents."
However, investigations revealed that teacher A did not actually send the videos to the parents and deleted all of them.
In response to the complaint, the Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education held a personnel advisory committee regarding teacher A and others.
At the time, teacher A reportedly stated, "When I went into class, it was noisy, so I told the students to sit down and be quiet, but they did not listen. I filmed the video for the purpose of making them quiet."
However, the personnel advisory committee concluded that teacher A had committed emotional abuse based on grounds such as students complaining of discomfort due to being filmed without consent regarding their portrait rights, and issued measures including removal from homeroom duties and a principal's warning.
Police, having received a related report from education authorities, have also booked teacher A on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and are looking into the facts.
Among frontline teachers, criticism is rising that the education authorities' recent action is "excessively harsh."
The Gyeongsangbuk-do branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union stated, "Considering that teacher A did not send the video to parents, the authorities' action is clearly an infringement on teachers' rights," and plans to issue an official protest.
(Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Eui-sun | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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