hankyoreh

A court in Incheon has decided that high school teachers who boycotted classes have to pay students and their parents compensation.

Judge Choe Jeong-yeol, in a ruling dated December 28, said 20 teachers at Incheon Foreign Language High School, who stopped teaching to protest the firing of two fellow teachers, have to pay W500,000 (US$539) to each student and W300,000 to each parent party to the lawsuit.

Some 400 students and parents sued the teachers in August 2004, saying their "right to education," something guaranteed in Korea’s constitution, had been violated. The teachers protested the firing of two fellow teachers, who had allegedly called certain school policies "discriminatory."

According to the judgment, "the accused violated the students’ right to receive education and the parents’ right to have their children educated by engaging in the illegal action of refusing to teach, which made students unable to have class and unable to study in a calm atmosphere."

The judge in his ruling said the students and parents experienced "mental suffering" that demands financial compensation, and that the teachers "cannot avoid responsibility for using illegal means when there were legal procedures and tools" available to them.

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