proof that movies help make the world a better place

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has embarked on a massive investigation of more than a million employees of schools in Korea to see if they have histories of committing sex crimes.

The investigation was prompted by a national uproar sparked by a recent film, “Dogani” (“The Crucible”), which is based on a true case involving the rapes of hearing-impaired students at a school in Gwangju.

Teachers or other school employees with records of committing sex crimes will face harsh punishments, including termination.

The education ministry, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the National Police Agency launched a comprehensive investigation on Wednesday of up to 1.03 million instructors and administrative officials of 189,759 educational institutions, including special schools for the disabled, kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools, private cram schools, and public science museums.

The investigation actually started in May.


According to the education ministry, 85.2 percent (or 874,552 officials) of the total education workforce have agreed to be investigated and completed the authorities’ personal background checks.

Of the remaining teachers, some have just started cooperating, but 17,891 education officials (1.7 percent) have refused.

The education ministry decided to request that local education offices force them to cooperate.

“Education superintendents in all cities and provinces have the right to check personal histories of their staffs in order to make clear whether sex offenders are working in the education field or not,” Oh Seung-geol, an official from the education ministry, said.

Convicted sex offenders will be fired from schools, and sexual offenders against juveniles, in particular, will be prevented from holding education-related jobs for the next 10 years.

The authorities said that offenders who received harsh punishments in the past will still be fired.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho emphasized that all offenders will be immediately fired from schools regardless of the severity of their crimes.

An official from the ministry said the names of teachers with records of sexual offenses will be made public on the Internet and in the press.

The ruling Grand National Party is also pushing for a revision of the law in order to ban teachers convicted of sex crimes against children from returning to work in schools.

The education minister said the legal reforms will be made law within a year.

source: Korea Joongang Daily

Comments

[tippani.livejournal.com]

The fact that people who are sex offenders were allowed to work in schools is just horrible tbqh. At least it's slowly changing.

[katzsong.livejournal.com]

They should spend more time working on fixing this issues than banning songs/mvs

Totally agree on this one *nod2*

[omen1x2.livejournal.com]

It's amazing to me that these people are still working in education in the first place. "Revision of the law in order to ban teachers convicted of sex crimes against children..." You mean there wasn't one already?!

And this is just for the ones that were convicted. What about that large portion of sexual offenders that weren't convicted? The majority of sex crimes aren't even reported, because in South Korea, the stigma against women that have been violated is generally just as negative as the offenders themselves.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

this only targets convicted sex offenders, some of the teacher's from the school were not even charged

[very-pinku.livejournal.com]

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is doing something actually related to gender inequality than just banning song lyrics?

They need to force background checks on every person and fire and take extreme measures into dealing with convicted people.
They shouldn't even have an option to return back to school.

[obviousgirl.livejournal.com]

It took them this long to realize that they needed to suss out what teachers in the education system are sex offenders and creating a law banning them from being hired in schools? Shouldn't that be the first thing they thought about? o.O

An official from the ministry said the names of teachers with records of sexual offenses will be made public on the Internet and in the press.

Is this really a good idea? Or do they want the mob mentality, that can occasionally takes over,to do the government and polices jobs for them?

[mentality34.livejournal.com]

well, america has this. and it shows where the sex offenders live too. i think they do it in the mindset that criminals don't have rights/have less rights

[obviousgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know we have it here; but the setups a bit different. The sex offenders here have more rules they have to obey by and the police are supposed to notify people if they have a sex offender living near them.

I guess this seems like a bad idea to me because, unlike in the states, they don't say anything about releasing the offenders photo and I guess my concern is a innocent person being accused of something they didn't do.

[tadaki.livejournal.com]

+1

Seriously there's that whole "right for the public to know so they can protect themselves" but more often than not some overly zealous troupe decides to take things into their own hands and these people end up ostracised from society, which is never a good thing for anyone really.

:/ I think they need to revise this whole idea about publicising, but they're probably trying to come out as harsh as possible to satisfy the public.

Actually, laws created just to settle public anger are never as well thought out as they should be DDX

[obviousgirl.livejournal.com]

I had a problem with that line as well. You also have to take in account that the public could get offenders mixed up with people who haven't committed sexual offenses and then you have a innocent person's life being tainted by an act they didn't do because the public has them confused with someone else.

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

Thank the friggin' deity they did something. Now they need to start thinking about how to avoid isolating and driving said offenders into becoming second citizens. No matter how distasteful they are, really don't need to see another Florida bridge home created.

[moonishlips.livejournal.com]

i might be misinformed, but when teachers from abroad apply to teach english in korea, don't they have to provide a criminal record check for the school in question, in order to obtain their visa

because if so, this reads very much like we must keep the foreign sex offenders out of our schools but the korean ones are nhd.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Yeah, starting from last year, FBI criminal background checks are required from teachers coming from America.

[moonishlips.livejournal.com]

ah, i thought so. i remember vaguely a friend of mine being upset they couldn't renew their visa because they stole a car when they were fourteen.