"I Was Bullied," But No Record Found? Schools Caught Neglecting Documentation

[Anchor]

An audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection has revealed that some middle and high schools in Seoul have been poorly managing records of school violence counseling and subsequent actions. Additionally, over 1,000 cases were uncovered where teachers copied and pasted the same descriptions into the "Student Records" (school life records) of multiple students, which can impact university admissions.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the story.

[Reporter]

At a School Violence Countermeasures Committee (학폭위) meeting held last October at a Seoul district office of education:

A high school student, identified as A, reported being a victim of school violence, claiming that three other students had dumped trash on their desk. The student had consulted with a teacher five times before filing the formal report.

However, the details shared during those counseling sessions were not recognized as school violence.

The Board of Audit and Inspection concluded that because the teacher failed to record or retain the counseling details, the School Violence Countermeasures Committee could not verify the victimization.

When the Board of Audit and Inspection examined a sample of 155 cases recognized as school violence across the Gangnam-Seocho and Gangseo-Yangcheon offices of education in Seoul, it found that 143 of them—or 92 percent—had no counseling records at all, meaning the relevant data was never submitted to the committee.

Even the mandatory two-year minimum retention period for school violence records was not properly observed.

[Oh Mi-sook/Gwangjin-gu, Seoul: It is absurd that there are no records, and I think it undermines trust in the school.]

The Board of Audit and Inspection has notified the Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to establish measures to ensure that counseling details are recorded and managed so they can be submitted to the School Violence Countermeasures Committee and used as evidence to prove victimization.

However, teachers' organizations argue that these requirements lack practicality.

[Jang Seung-hyeok/Spokesperson for the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations: Parents often raise many issues regarding whether it is appropriate for teachers to distinguish between perpetrators and victims, and the problems that arise during that process.]

The Board of Audit and Inspection also stated that between 2021 and 2024, 803 teachers at 239 high schools in Seoul were found to have duplicated the same content in the "detailed special remarks" section of the Student Records for dozens of students, totaling 1,106 cases.

Some teachers were found to have recycled text used in previous years, while others wrote the exact same comprehensive opinion for an entire class of students in a single day.

(Video reporting: Joo Beom | Video editing: Jung Yong-hwa)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.