▲ KakaoTalk application logo

High school student A joined a KakaoTalk chat room. Other friends in the chat room said something bad to a student named B, and student A sent a smiling emoticon about it. Student B's parents noticed it, and they reported it to the school. As a result, student A, who just responded by sending a smiling emoticon, had a punishment, and her behavior was recorded in her school record. The school record is very important for the students in South Korea because it is very influential when they go to universities. Therefore, the majority of people are concerned, and they said that it is an overreaction that just made one's life into a failure.

The Ministry of Education announced that from now on, light school bullying is not going to be recorded in the school record. Also, if a student reflects from his or her fault, the record of school bullying can be deleted. According to research, 73 percent of teachers agreed with this idea. They said that parents keep on intervening into students' small fights, so a lot of cases on school bullying lead to legal conflicts. However, if this amendment succeeds, these unnecessary conflicts will reduce.

▲ school bullying illustration

However, some showed different reactions to the decision of the ministry. The parents of students said that the standard of what is light and what is heavy school bullying is ambiguous. Also, a lot of students will be the victim of school bullying when this amendment is passed.

Some people are also criticizing the ministry because the ministry always tried to make things easy to manage. Even though the ministry tired to persuade their opinion, endless protests are registered day by day.

▲ Ministry of Education logo

The more the power of the school report is gaining, the more we should be careful about it. In this case, the right decision of the Ministry of Education whether to treat school bullying as one mistake or a serious fault is urgently needed.

July 28th, 2019

by Yang Ye Won