hankyoreh

who committed suicide by jumping from a building in Gyeongsan

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent

In the case of the new student at a specialized high school who ended his life because of being bullied by classmates during middle school, it was found that the middle school administration had not properly dealt with the bullying despite having had several chances to stop it. The victim, a 15-year-old 10th grader surnamed Choi at J Electronics High School in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province had been absent without permission for three days in a row because of school violence, and one of the bullies had even received special counseling because of his habitual harassing of other students, the Hankyoreh found.

Representatives for J Middle School had claimed that Choi had not had any unusual absences and that neither the bullies nor the victims had received any special counseling for school violence.

Hankyoreh reporters found that B, a 15-year-old 10th grader at J Electronics High School in Cheongdo whom the deceased Choe identified as a bully in his suicide note, had received special counseling in a program at the school called “We Class” on two occasions in Apr. and Jul. 2012 because of his involvement in school violence. On Apr. 17, B had a counseling session because he had bullied students several times, and on Jul. 16, he had another one when a boy named L claimed that he had been attacked by B on several occasions over the course of half a year. The middle school administration even kept a record of these special counseling sessions, but they took no particular action in response.

Another of the alleged bullies, a 15-year-old boy named G who is a 10th grader at Daegu G High School, was also confirmed to have received special counseling on Jul. 19, 2012, after he experienced confusing emotions because of his parents’ divorce.

It was revealed during the police investigation that Choi, the deceased, had failed to show up at school for three consecutive days after being attacked by G during the summer of 2011, when he was in the 8th grade. When Choi’s homeroom teacher at the time had him write a self-reflective essay about his unexcused absences, she found out that he had not showed up at school because he had been attacked by G. But aside from alerting both sets of parents about this fact, the teacher did not take any other action.

The North Gyeongsang Province Office of Education announced that it would soon conduct an audit of J Middle School and that it is planning to impose disciplinary measures on those connected with the incident.

“When a teacher notices something unusual about their students, they should work with the other teachers and with experts from outside the school to find the cause and to search for a resolution,” said Lim Seong-mu, chair of the education subcommittee of the Daegu Justice and Peace Committee for the Catholic Church. “To make that possible, it is important for teachers to develop cooperative relationships with each other and with their students, and for us to create an educational environment conducive to such cooperation. If this had been in place, perhaps we could have prevented Choe’s regrettable death.”

Hankyoreh reporters made several phone calls and visited the school in an effort to hear the position of the school administration, but the administration did not respond to requests for an interview.

On Mar. 15, the police department in Gyeongsan in North Gyeongsang Province, which is investigating the incident, began calling the perpetrators identified in Choi’s suicide note to come in for questioning. Of the five alleged bullies, the police summoned N (a 10th grader at J High School in Cheongdo) and G at 1:02 pm and 1:49 pm and questioned them until the evening. During the police questioning, the boys partially admitted to assaulting Choi, it was reported. As the police hurry to call in the rest of the bullies for questioning this weekend, they are considering requesting arrest warrants for N and G.

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