Exclusive: Teacher Assaults Up for 5th Straight Year... "Injured Due to Student Attack"

[Anchor]

A drama about a fictional "Office of Educational Rights" where teachers stand up against troubled students and parents recently gained a lot of popularity. However, the reality in actual schools is moving in the opposite direction. It has been found that unbelievable incidents where teachers are assaulted by students or parents have continued to increase over the past five years.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the exclusive report.

[Reporter]

Mr. A, a teacher in his 50s serving as the head of student affairs at a middle school in Gyeonggi Province.

Last December, he was diagnosed with injuries requiring two weeks of medical treatment after being struck in a classroom by a bag full of books swung by a student nearly 180 centimeters tall.

[Mr. A / Victimized Teacher: I hit the blackboard and was squatting down, unable to breathe. It hurt so much that I couldn't even speak.]

When Mr. A tried to stop the student in question from leaving without apologizing, the parent filed a police report against him for child abuse, claiming it was "false imprisonment," the teacher lamented.

[Mr. A / Victimized Teacher: I feel aggrieved but have nowhere to turn, and with multiple people gathered around, I felt humiliated and embarrassed. Am I even a teacher? That is the kind of feeling I had.]

While Mr. A was explaining the situation to the provincial office of education and other authorities, the student graduated two months later without complying with the investigation by the Teachers' Rights Protection Committee.

According to Ministry of Education data obtained by SBS, cases of teachers suffering injury or assault from students or guardians surged from 113 in 2020 to 561 in 2025—more than a fourfold increase—marking five consecutive years of growth.

Crimes of sexual violence against teachers by students or guardians also continuously increased from 31 cases in 2020, reaching 157 in 2024 and 114 in 2025.

Cases involving the unauthorized distribution of photos, voice recordings, and synthesized media of teachers, which have been tallied since 2022, also exceeded 100 cases in both 2024 and 2025, compared to 11 cases in 2022.

[Baek Seung-ah / Member of the National Assembly Education Committee (Democratic Party of Korea): We must continuously check whether teacher protection systems—such as legal support and psychological recovery assistance—are functioning properly in the field so that teachers do not have to shoulder the burden alone.]

A bill has also been proposed and is currently under review by the National Assembly to change regulations so that when a teacher is reported for child abuse, the investigation is automatically concluded if there is an opinion from the superintendent of education recognizing "legitimate student guidance" along with a police determination of no charges.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Video Reported by Lee Moo-jin, Kim Yong-woo | Video Edited by Yu Mi-ra | Design by Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.