“Insufficient follow-up measures for school principal misconduct at the Gyeongbuk Office of Education”… One after another, the National Assembly inspection pointed out

“Despite the fact that the principal assaulted a student, the school was re-designated as an alternative school” and “Sexual harassment ended without disciplinary action against the principal.”

(Daegu = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Soo-bin = It was pointed out that the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education's follow-up measures for various misconduct, such as child abuse and sexual harassment, by school leaders in the Gyeongbuk region were insufficient.

Baek Seung-ah, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (proportional representative), criticized the National Assembly Education Committee's government audit held on the 20th at the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education for six regional offices of education, including Gyeongbuk, saying, "Despite the fact that the head of an alternative school in Pohang was sentenced to a fine of 10 million won for assaulting a student in 2023, the alternative school has been re-designated as a consignment educational institution every year."

Rep. Baek argued, “The Provincial Office of Education re-designated the designation with conditions such as completion of training for all employees to report child abuse.” He added, “As a result of direct investigation by the assemblyman’s office, it was confirmed that the conditions were not met, so why did they not remove the designation?”

He continued, “There are no actual status inspection results left after the incident. It is data from three years ago, so why is it not in the Provincial Office of Education?” He added, “This is an incident where the head of the institution assaulted a student with a billiard stick and verbally abused him. Will people accept that the school has been re-designated?”

In response to this, Lim Jong-sik, Superintendent of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education, explained, "We had a lot of concerns about re-designation, and it is true that there are problems. Students attending alternative schools are at-risk students and have no place to go anymore, so we decided to re-designate them by taking into account their right to education, etc."

It was also pointed out that follow-up measures regarding sexual misconduct by a school principal in the Gyeongbuk region were insufficient.

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Hee-jeong (Yeonje-gu, Busan) said, "There was a case where the principal's sexual harassment was acknowledged, but it was closed without disciplinary action, saying it was retirement age," and "When the victim asked about the status of follow-up measures, the person in charge of the private school audit within the Office of Education responded laxly by saying that he could not take action right away because he was busy with other work."

When Superintendent Lim failed to respond right away, Rep. Kim requested, “Please give me an additional answer later on what follow-up measures will be taken.”