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Members of the National Association of Education Students hold a press conference outside the government complex in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun area on Aug. 16 where they announce that they’ve collected 1,200 signatures from aspiring educators and call for the government to put forth policies to prevent similar tragedies. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

Over 1,000 prospective teachers have signed their names to a statement aimed at changing conditions for teachers in schools, the National Association of Education Students announced.

In regard to the death by suicide of a teacher at an elementary school in Seoul’s Seocho District last month, the students wrote, “The death of this elementary school teacher was social manslaughter by a government that places the responsibility for the resolution of difficulties faced by teachers on the shoulders of the individual teachers themselves.”

Members of the National Association of Education Students hold a press conference outside the government complex in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun area on Aug. 16 where they announce that they’ve collected 1,200 signatures from aspiring educators and call for the government to put forth policies to prevent similar tragedies. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

“Following the teacher’s death, we prospective teachers have erected a memorial altar at the school and carried out memorial activities,” the education majors wrote. “This incident was a structural problem that could arise at any school in the country.”

Saying that “better education in which the human rights of both students and teacher are respected is possible,” those gathered at the press conference vowed to “change school on the ground and create classrooms where the human rights of both students and teachers are respected.”

A participant in the press conference holds up a sign that reads “Classrooms where the human rights of both students and teachers are respected.” (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

Participants in the press conference hold a moment of silence for the elementary school teacher who was found dead by suicide in her classroom last month. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

By Yoon Woon-sik, senior staff writer

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