"Don't Smoke": Teacher Found Dead in School Storage After Scolding Student

In May of last year, a middle school teacher in Jeju Island was found dead inside a school storage room.

Amid growing social issues surrounding the infringement of teachers' rights and malicious complaints, the story of the teacher who died by suicide last year is being re-examined.

The teacher had counseled and disciplined a student in their homeroom who frequently skipped school and smoked, and the student had not appeared at school since that day.

When contacting the family to check, the student claimed to have been falsely accused of smoking and was too afraid of the teacher to go to school. The student's family also pressured the teacher, stating they would report the teacher to the Provincial Office of Education for using harsh language against the child.

Suffering from severe headaches due to this issue, the teacher applied for sick leave, but it was not granted.

[Teacher-Vice Principal Phone Call / Actual Call (May 19, 2025): Don't you think taking sick leave and just stepping away might give them more grounds for criticism? (I have headaches, so now...) After resolving the parent's complaints.]

The teacher sent an apology text message to the student's family and even requested a meeting, but the appointment fell through, and the teacher ultimately took their own life, leaving a suicide note at the school.

The suicide note contained feelings of injustice, reading, "I did not lie."

Although records of dozens of phone calls with the student's family were found on the deceased teacher's mobile phone, the Jeju Dongbu Police Station closed its internal investigation into the student's family in December of last year on the grounds that there was no criminal suspicion.

[Wife of the Deceased Teacher: The police closing the internal investigation means that because my husband apologized, he admitted fault. Calls are considered stalking when they are one-sided, but my husband answered the phone. There is no way data would remain as it is on the other party's phone, and the family has to run around and investigate this reality...]

The bereaved family states that even while many people were plunged into grief over the tragic death of the teacher, they did not hear a single word from the student's family.

Recently, the production team of SBS "Unanswered Questions" visited the student's family to ask about their feelings at the time, but only received the response, "We will report you to the police."

[Student's Family: Everything is over now and we said we wouldn't do anything, so what are you trying to accomplish by suddenly showing up? Hey, just report it to the police. My heart is pounding so hard I could die. We even attempted suicide.]

Teacher organizations defined this incident as the "second Seoi Elementary School incident," and in January of this year, the Government Employees Pension Service recognized the teacher's death as a death in the line of duty, stating that it was significantly related to official duties.

Netizens who encountered the story reacted with comments such as, "It is shocking that a teacher lost their life while guiding a student" and "Things more dramatic than a drama unfold every day."

(Planning: Yoon Sung-sik, Video Editing: Kim Na-on, Video Source: SBS Unanswered Questions Episode 1495, Produced: SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.