Foreign English teacher in Korea feeds detergent to children as punishment

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

South Korea experiences its worse school incident yet as it was revealed that a western English teacher fed their elementary students kitchen detergent as punishment.

According to news reports, an English teacher teaching at a private school and originating from South Africa had punishment their students for speaking Korean instead of English while they were being taught. The students were given two options for their punishment, either taste the detergent or a chemical medicine that prevents toddlers from biting their nails. Unfortunately, not knowing any better, three students chose the detergent while another two chose the chemical medicine.

After the parents found out about the horrific incident, endless complaints and questions were brought up. In response, the teacher simply wrote an apology letter stating that she had “not told the students to eat them but just to taste them and nothing was forced.”

Not satisfied with her “apology” letter, parents continued their uproar in anger leading to the teacher getting fired on March 16th. But what is most disturbing is that the school had not even reported the incident to the school board as it believed the incident was not severe. Unlike public schools that are monitored by the school board, private schools manage their own system.

This appalling incident has definitely brought to attention the mistreatment of students in both public and private schools in Korea as well as their respective administration. The case should not end with just the teacher being fired, but should extend to the faulty system of management as well.

Sources: Huffington Post Korea, Koreaboo

Comments

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

What? WHAT?

[xoshio.livejournal.com]

Honestly hope they make it harder for foreigners to become English teachers in Korea
Like, they should at least have studied English or something

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

What the fuck is wrong with this person, jfc.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

for speaking korean instead of English????? Seriously?????? That type of action is not necessary no matter what the situation is but are you fucking kidding me. Why???? Why would you go and do a job like this if you don't have the patience to deal with children. And the person is saying that they didn't force them but still they would not have done it if you didn't tell them to so????? The fuck

[psharp10.livejournal.com]

what even????

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

What mushy thing did she replace her brain for?

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

ugh sadly in Japan I met quite a few people (okay, all dudes) who were teaching English who should have never been anywhere near children.

Guys lusting after their middle school girl students, guys gloating about how they boxed ears on children, guys who didn't teach just flirted with the moms trying to score some.

I never want to go back to that world uuuuugh.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Guys lusting after their middle school girl students
JFC, that's fucking disgusting.
I know it's not good to generalize but I have such an immense distrust of guys who want to go to Asia to teach (exp white guys) because it's almost always rooted in some "Easy Asian women" fantasy

[hongaerin.livejournal.com]

This is sick and disgusting. This is wrong on so many levels. Never forced them ??? Well at least she pressured them enough to do it because no student would do that just for fun. And this could have turned super dangerous is the students had reactions at these chemicals.

On the other hand, I myself drank a mouthful of detergent last week, by mistake. My coworker told me she left a water bottle for me in the storehouse, but someone else poured clear detergent in a water bottle in that same storehouse. I was not being careful and had a moutful of the wrong bottle.
Fortunately, it was not something too strong or dangerous like bleach, but I still ended up on my knees crying and coughing and thinking I would die because it was just horrible.
Never EVER pour clear detergent in water bottles. It's super hyper dangerous and a very stupid thing to do.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

Omg are you okay?

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

If I was their parents I would have kicked her ass. Glad she was fired and she deserves to be deported.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

i mean at best it's comparable to having kids bite onto soap like the old days but like detergent wtf

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

They were not forced? Do you expect kids to say no to a teacher?

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

wtf

[audiograms.livejournal.com]

I had a SA teacher once, he lasted a day bc he gave us really cruel punishments, was super racist and we told the headmaster who fired him on the spot and took over the class for the rest of the day [it was like year 3]

[bloods-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had that experience.

not all South Africans are like this though :(

[torontok.livejournal.com]

JFC, where did they pick up this psycho? She should receive criminal charges what the hell.
And punishing them for speaking Korean struck a pretty big nerve with me because this is what my teachers in Pakistan used to do when we spoke Urdu in class instead of English.If a kid messed up while speaking or used an Urdu word, they'd have to do a squat chicken pose for ten minutes in the front of the class.It was humiliating and painful and was partly the reason I nearly stopped speaking Urdu at all.

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

Disgusting. You have to be such scum to abuse innocent children.

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

what the actual fuck? I don't even know where to start!
they weren't forced

THEY ARE FREAKING ELEMENTARY STUDENTS! They are children who will not question their teacher and do their punishments because they believe they did something wrong! This woman has to have serious issues, otherwise I can't think of an excuse for this kind of behavior! What if it's not the first time these students tasted those chemicals? Imagine that has been going on for a while and we only know this now? The poor kids might even have health problems because of this excuse of human being!

the school had not even reported the incident to the school board as it believed the incident was not severe.
Because drinking detergent is exactly the same as standing in the hall the whole class or writing on the board 100 times they shouldn't do something bad.
I hope she is deported, never allowed to go to Seoul ever again and I really hope she can never teach them again. E-V-E-R!

[winged-monster.livejournal.com]

This is really messed up. However, I think the punishment is unfair given that this is probably far more lenient that the corporal punishment Korean teachers are allowed to give students with no recourse. All teachers, foreign or Korean, need to stop with this shit.

It seems like the intent of the media releasing this is to draw attention away from Korean teachers doing worse by highlighting the one foreign teacher that did something not even as bad.

I already read about this last night. I'm busy, but I will post a link about more context if I have the chance.

[xhella-nathalie.livejournal.com]

Actually corporal punishment was banned from Korea about 2-3 years ago.
Hence why I don't really understand it when I see some kpop videos that still show some form of it. =/

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

make them choose between eat detergent or bitter chemical medicine
what kind of twisted mind does that to kids??
you hate kids??? why are you even teaching??
i hope she was deported

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this person honestly doesn't sound like someone who likes kids a whole lot.

[bubblechii.livejournal.com]

I can't believe this ...

[yuzuruhanyu.livejournal.com]

WTF FORCING THEM TO EAT CHEMICALS OR DETERGENT JUST BECAUSE THEY SPOKE THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE INSTEAD OF ENGLISH?????

this neoimperialist shit needs to stop fuck that teacher

[tree-star123.livejournal.com]

omg I can't believe this teacher & her condescending non-apology. fucked up

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

WTF didn't this asshole have a supervisor?????? are foreign teachers really left alone with these children??

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

“not told the students to eat them but just to taste them and nothing was forced.”

Authority figure to minors - "you had a choice"

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

Screw this person tbh, you should force people to ingest things as a punishment ever???? wtf??????

One time I ate laundry detergent in one of those "it smells so good" moments and that was honestly the worst experience of my life, I can't even imagine what that would've been like as a kid........

[broadway-bound3.livejournal.com]

As the head teacher at a hagwon I am beyond freaked out. What if one of my own teachers decides to pull some sick punishment like this? I might have to bring this up at our meeting on Monday. They seem like good people, but you never know.