In April, an accident occurred at an elementary school in Daegu where a student playing tag bumped into a locker.

The guardian filed a report claiming school violence, and the opposing student also filed a counter-report, but the school violence committee ultimately concluded that neither case constituted "school violence."

During the last semester at a middle school in Seoul, a report was filed over a remark saying, "Because of you, I couldn't go to the school retreat." At an elementary school in Seoul, another report was filed because a student repeatedly asked, "Keep giving me the ball I was playing with." However, both cases concluded as "not school violence."

Cases like these, where simple conflicts or everyday frictions between students lead to school violence reports, are on the rise.

According to the "school violence reporting status" data submitted by the Ministry of Education to Democratic Party Representative Baek Seung-ah's office, 22% of the cases referred for deliberation among the approximately 56,000 school violence reports received last year were concluded as "not school violence."

This means that more than 1 out of every 5 school violence committee deliberations did not actually qualify as school violence.

The number of "not school violence" cases has more than doubled over three years, rising from approximately 2,800 cases—13% of all deliberated cases—in 2022 to about 6,400 cases last year.

Indiscriminate reporting is also leading to administrative burdens in school settings.

As teachers waste administrative resources separating the students' routes to and from school as well as their lunch movement paths and providing separate classes, they struggle to focus on genuinely severe school violence cases.

Experts offer interpretations that "going through the COVID-19 pandemic made students struggle to resolve conflicts with friends, leading them to file school violence reports whenever they experience even the slightest discomfort."

In response, the government introduced a "relationship recovery reflection system" starting this year, targeting first and second graders in elementary schools to mediate conflicts through counseling.

Critics point out that along with expanding mediation systems, procedures must be established to screen out simple grievance-based reports.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Yu-jin | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News