"Three Bears Promote Low Birth Rate" and Other Absurd Complaints Prompt Calls to Block Direct Teacher Contact

In June, when the South Korean national football team's North and Central American World Cup matches were held, students at a middle school in Gyeonggi Province caused a disturbance while watching the game in their classroom, prompting a student guidance teacher to tell them to "disperse."

However, two days later, a related complaint was filed through e-People, a government online petition and civil appeal portal.

The reason cited in the complaint was that "the teacher shouted too loudly at the students."

A physical education teacher at the same school also received a complaint questioning why an outdoor PE class was held despite fine dust warnings, and the school ultimately had to draft a written response to submit to the provincial office of education.

An analysis recently showed that so-called "school-related complaints" submitted through e-People are increasing rapidly.

According to data from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, school-related e-People complaints filed with 16 municipal and provincial offices of education nationwide rose by 7.1%, from approximately 124,000 cases in 2024 to 133,000 cases last year.

While overall e-People complaints decreased by 4.3% over the same period, complaints directed at offices of education increased in contrast.

The upward trend has become even steeper this year.

In the first quarter alone, about 52,000 cases were filed, accounting for roughly 40% of last year's total complaints in just three months.

The contents of the complaints vary widely, including grievances such as "the English performance assessment is too difficult," "why won't you change my child's club," "why was my child assigned to the same group as a peer they do not get along with," and "what are the criteria for seat arrangements on field trip buses."

In January, the Ministry of Education prepared a manual for handling civil complaints to protect teachers' authority, which includes banning the submission of complaints through teachers' personal contact numbers or social media.

However, the situation changes when complaints are filed through official channels like e-People.

Under relevant laws, schools are required to verify the facts and submit a response to the office of education within seven days.

Even if complaints raised directly against teachers decrease, the administrative burden on schools to handle them remains when they are submitted as official civil complaints.

Absurd complaints are pouring in not just at offices of education; last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's online civil complaint system even received a filing arguing that the bear family sculpture at Seoul Botanic Park only has three bears, which allegedly encourages low birth rates, and demanding the installation of two additional bears.

Experts have pointed out the need to improve the system so that specific evidence is required when submitting online complaints, allowing unfounded grievances to be filtered out in advance.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.