▲ Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has finalized a ruling against a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by an elementary school student, identified as A, who claimed to be a victim of school violence and sought to cancel an administrative review committee's decision. (Photo: Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
Division 1 of the Supreme Court (presiding Justice Cheon Dae-yup) finalized the lower court ruling on September 3, dismissing the lawsuit filed by elementary school student A against the regional office of education's administrative appeals commission.
In early 2023, student B, who was in the same first-grade class (age 7) at the time, pushed student A off an 80-centimeter-high platform during an after-school class in the school multipurpose room, causing injuries.
The local education support office's school violence countermeasure deliberation committee subsequently determined that B's actions constituted school violence and resolved to issue a written apology, which the head of the education office then administered.
Objecting to the measure, B's side filed an administrative appeal seeking to overturn it. The education office's administrative appeals commission subsequently issued a decision revoking the measure, concluding that the incident was difficult to view as school violence.
In response, A's side filed a lawsuit in court seeking to cancel the appeals commission's decision.
The first trial court ruled in favor of A, determining that B's action constituted school violence and thus revoking the administrative appeals decision.
The court reasoned that at the age of entering elementary school, children are capable of knowing that pushing a peer from that height could cause injury and that such behavior must not be done.
However, the second trial court ruled that the act did not constitute school violence.
The appellate court stated, "It is difficult to view that B, who was merely 7 years old, reached a degree where there was a necessity for guidance through measures under the law, or that the behavior warranted being classified as school violence."
The Supreme Court agreed with the appellate court's judgment.
The Supreme Court laid down the legal principle that when determining whether an action constitutes school violence, courts must comprehensively consider not only whether the act literally fits the definition of school violence, but also the severity of the act, the background and surrounding circumstances of the incident, the age and relationship of the victim and perpetrator, and the necessity for protecting the victim and guiding and educating the perpetrator.
The court explained that because students experience significant changes in cognitive and judgment abilities as they grow, the developmental stage of these abilities must be taken into account from the perspective of guidance and education.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court pointed out, "If actions that merely seem to fit the description of 'acts entailing physical, mental, or property damage' under the School Violence Prevention Act are all regarded as school violence, virtually every conflict or dispute arising between students in school life would become school violence."
It added, "As a result, even in cases where there is little necessity to protect the victim or guide and educate the perpetrator, students could be unfairly subjected to negative evaluations as perpetrators of school violence, potentially infringing upon the human rights and rights of the perpetrator."
(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
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