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North Asia Correspondent James Orton and Sookyoyo Lee in Seoul
WARNING: This article touches on mental health and suicide.
(ABC – Australia) After struggling with months of abuse and belittling from her parents, graduated primary school teacher Wu* has been trying to put on a brave face.
“I am a good, strong person,” she wrote in her diary early last year.
“Someone will recognize how great you are.
“I am a kind and strong person,” she repeated twice more.
A month later, the 26-year-old committed suicide.
Less than a year after landing her first full-time teaching job, she died, becoming another grim statistic in South Korea’s high teacher suicide rate.
Her grieving father, Oh Jae Geun, was furious with her school, saying they had failed to support the budding young teacher.
“It’s extremely difficult to recall these memories,” he said as he looked through his daughter’s diary.
“When I’m alone, I start to have these memories again and it’s very torturous.
“Even when I sleep, if it’s quiet around me, the thoughts come to my mind, so I turn on the TV and fall asleep to the sound. It’s hard when I’m alone. There’s always noise around me.”
Ms. Wu’s job seemed to be a lucky break; she was temporarily filling in for a teacher who was on leave.
But when her students’ parents noticed her lack of experience, they began to scrutinize her performance.
“The parents didn’t like the new teacher, so the vice principal didn’t tell them,” Jae Geun said.
Ms. Wu received messages from her parents at all times — when she was out to dinner with friends and even on vacation.
Parents felt she handled the situation poorly when she tried to break up a fight between two students.
“They kept calling our daughter and saying things like ‘You can’t teach anymore,’ ” Jae Geun said.
Some even go further.
“We will make sure you eat prison meals. I will go to the police station and file a complaint against you right now. You will never stand in front of a classroom again,” Jae Geun said his daughter was told.
Wu’s friends warned her to leave school – because the stress was simply not worth it.
But her companions told her the experience was normal.
Despite a lack of support from senior staff, she chose to press on.
“When my daughter tried to seek help from other teachers to mediate fairly, they just told her to ‘figure it out on your own,'” Jae Geun said.
Last January, just 10 months after she accepted the job, she committed suicide.
The education department concluded in December last year that the man who committed suicide was depressed due to bullying by his parents.
A forensic analysis of her phone revealed the extent of the bullying, which included 1,500 text messages.
Parents have low respect for teachers
Korean parents are known for putting enormous pressure on their children to do well in school.
The logic is simple – get good grades, get into a good university, and get a good career.
In South Korea, this is called “education fever.”
But the pressure has seeped down through high schools and middle schools into elementary schools as parents try to instill a hard-work ethic in their children.
“The role of parents is probably the biggest factor,” explained Insoo Oh, a former teacher at Ewha Womans University and an education expert.
“Even in primary school, students feel pressure to study because of their parents’ high expectations. As they enter middle and high school, this pressure only grows.”
He added that the pressure is not only on the children but also on the teachers.
“If schools fail to meet parents’ expectations, parents will hold teachers accountable,” Professor Wu said.
The situation reached a critical point last year when a 23-year-old teacher committed suicide.
Teachers took to the streets to demand an end to a system that is hamstrung by malicious complaints from parents and students.
South Korea’s Ministry of Education revealed at the time that more than 100 teachers had committed suicide in five years.
More than half of these students are primary school students.
Professor Wu said there has been a huge cultural change in how teachers are viewed.
He said many people who once revered and respected their parents are now looked down upon because their parents are also highly educated and often earn more.
“Due to the declining social status of teachers and their hypersensitivity to their children’s education, parents will be more vocal, sometimes to the point of aggression, if they feel teachers are not meeting their demands,” he said.
“The transformation of students and parents compared to 10 years ago is astounding.”
Parents lodge false complaint with police
Primary school teacher Jin Minjun (pseudonym) has experienced the ruthlessness of his parents.
After discovering students writing insults about him on the school notice board, he reported the matter to the Teachers’ Rights Protection Committee.
In retaliation, the children’s parents reported him to the police for suspected child abuse.
Some parents accused him of only providing children with water during sports sessions instead of sports drinks.
Others complained that a student was not immediately taken to the nurse’s office after scraping his knee.
Mr. King believes that these charges are so ridiculous that the police will immediately dismiss them.
“I was like, ‘No, that can’t be it, it has to be something else,’ ” he recalled.
“It was unreasonable that they would report it as child abuse. But later during the police investigation, when they asked me about it, I got angry at the police.
“I said, ‘What the hell is this? How is this child abuse?'”
The case was ultimately dismissed after prosecutors intervened.
Mr. Jin has since transferred to another school.
But the effects of his trauma remain.
“I will try my best to do my job well,” he said.
“But now, to avoid doing anything that could be reported as child abuse. I actually don’t discipline students anymore.”
He said the fear paralyzed other teachers as well.
“There are virtually no tools to discipline students for misbehavior.”
The system is improving but there is more work to do
In response to the teachers’ strike, the South Korean government has introduced measures to resolve the problem.
A hotline has been set up for teachers to report issues and get counselling and legal advice.
Teachers will no longer be summarily fired for reporting child abuse.
Parents themselves can also be fined more than $3,000 if they “interfere” with a student’s “educational activities,” including by making repeated and unwarranted complaints or asking teachers to perform tasks that are not part of their duties.
Professor Wu said these latest measures provide teachers with a legal circuit breaker.
But the big challenge ahead is to restore trust between parents and teachers – and prevent problems from arising in the first place.
“Trust between parents and teachers has actually deteriorated significantly,” he said.
“Fundamentally, teachers and parents are partners in developing and educating students.”
Jae Geun acknowledged that teachers believe the education system has improved greatly since her daughter’s suicide.
But he wants more changes to ensure teachers’ independence and that new teachers get adequate support in their early years.
“Legally and institutionally, we need to act quickly,” he said.
South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed countries, with more than 20 people taking their own lives per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and the OECD.
For more than a decade, suicide has been the leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 39.
* Wu’s family requested that only her last name be used for privacy reasons. Her family does not want her photo to be published.
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