A teacher in Gyeonggi who made two surly students do a very fast push up has been ordered disciplined by the provincial education office, enraging the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations and even some parents.

In March, the 33-year old teacher, who is surnamed Jeon, saw one of his students making a video call to a friend in a different class on a phone taken from another student. After the class was over, he scolded both of the students, but they apparently weren’t contrite. Jeon ordered them to get into a push-up pose for five seconds and pinched their cheeks.

After a complaint by the mother of one of the students, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education issued a warning that went onto the teacher’s record.

“Making a student get into a push-up pose is an obvious violation of human rights, which is prohibited by the Gyeonggi Ordinance of Student Rights,” the education office said in a statement Saturday. It also said corporal punishment is prohibited by the same ordinance.

The school is in the city of Namyangju.

Corporal punishment in schools, both direct and indirect, was prohibited by the Gyeonggi education office last March.

The KFTA issued a statement Sunday saying “the decision betrayed the essence of education and infringed on the teacher’s authority.” It said that if disciplinary action against Jeon wasn’t withdrawn, it would take legal action.

The KFTA also said “the Education Ministry allows teachers to engage in indirect corporal punishment, therefore Jeon’s action did not go against the rules. It said it would fight to defend “teachers’ authority.” (The ministry’s allowing of indirect corporal punishment, such as running laps, is not backed by some local school offices.)

Haksamo, a nationwide group that describes itself as “parents who love school,” sided with the teacher and the union.

Dozens of posts were uploaded to the official homepage of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.

One post uploaded yesterday by a person named Choi Seong-wook read: “The incident makes me worried about the next 100 years of this country. If such a punishment is considered a violation of human rights, we might as well tell teachers to quit teaching.”

Another post uploaded yesterday by a person named Hyeon Hye-gu read: “If doing push-ups is considered a violation of human rights, then Korean men doing military service get their rights violated hundreds of times a day.”

An Education Ministry committee will review the case within two months.


By Yim Seung-hye [sharon@joongang.co.kr]