Child dies of cerebral hemorrhage; substitute health room teacher found partly liable — and teachers are alarmed

By Kim Yong-jae, The Herald Business

Anxiety is spreading among teachers after a court found a substitute health room teacher partially liable for damages in connection with the death of an elementary school student who complained of headaches at school and later died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The court ruled that the teacher filling in for the school's health teacher had violated a duty of care by leaving the student alone despite visible signs of distress. It is common practice at Korean schools for a regular teacher to temporarily cover the health room when the designated health teacher is away for classes or other duties. Following the ruling, teachers have been voicing concern that if an accident happens while covering the health room, a regular teacher could be held responsible too.

In June 2023, a sixth-grade student, identified only as A, complained of a headache at an elementary school in Daejeon and went to the health room. The school's health teacher was in the middle of a health class at the time. A fifth-grade homeroom teacher, identified as B, took over as the substitute health room teacher and assumed responsibility for the student's care.

A's condition worsened and she was transferred to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage and underwent surgery. Hospitals in Daejeon were reportedly unable to accept pediatric emergency patients at the time, so she was moved to a hospital in Sejong. Despite surgery and subsequent inpatient treatment, A died.

Her parents filed a damages lawsuit against the homeroom teacher, the health teacher, the substitute health room teacher and the state. The Daejeon District Court issued a partial ruling in the plaintiffs' favor in April last year, ordering substitute teacher B and the state to jointly pay each of A's parents 5 million won ($3,240) plus accrued interest.

The court found that B had been aware of the seriousness of A's condition but failed to take adequate protective measures. After the student left the health room, she was heard crying and was unable to walk properly near the restroom — yet B sent her to the elevator alone. A's crying was audible from inside the elevator, but B did not check on her immediately, leaving the child alone for more than three minutes.

The court stopped short of finding B's actions to be the direct cause of A's death, however. It said it would have been difficult for a non-medical professional to immediately suspect a cerebral hemorrhage and call emergency services, and that there was insufficient evidence to conclude B's conduct directly contributed to the student's death. The damages claims against the health teacher and A's homeroom teacher were dismissed.

The court nonetheless held that the state bore joint liability under the State Compensation Act, as B was a civil servant who had violated a duty of care in the course of official duties.

The ruling sent ripples through schools. Regular teachers say the scope of responsibility for covering the health room is unclear — in particular, what legal authority a substitute health room teacher actually holds while the health teacher is in class.

The ruling has prompted calls among teachers to do away with the practice of assigning regular teachers to cover the health room. "It's a structure where a regular teacher with no medical knowledge and no special authority sits in the health room, and if something goes wrong, they end up bearing all the responsibility," one elementary school teacher said. "There's a growing sense that it's no longer easy to agree to cover the health room."

Another teacher echoed the concern. "When a regular teacher steps in as a substitute, it's unclear how far they're supposed to assess a student's condition and what action they should take," the teacher said. "Ultimately, the problem is a structure where responsibility falls on whoever happened to be there when something goes wrong. Health care requires expertise — having a regular teacher fill in temporarily is dangerous for students and teachers alike."

The Korea Health Teachers' Labor Union said the structure in which health teachers leave the health room for class duties — with a regular teacher designated as substitute — is the root cause of confusion in managing medical emergencies. The union also filed a public interest audit request with the Board of Audit and Inspection, alleging that the Ministry of Education and provincial education offices had arbitrarily interpreted regulations in requiring health teachers to conduct classroom instruction.

"It is impossible for a non-medical professional to properly guide and treat students who come to the health room," the union said. "The structure that forces health teachers to leave the health room for classroom instruction must change."

An education sector official said the current arrangement has clear limits. "Leaving individual teachers on the ground to make emergency judgment calls — without any settled framework for who covers the health room during a health teacher's class, and with what authority and responsibility — is unsustainable," the official said. "The school emergency response system and the standards for health room substitution need to be clearly defined at the institutional level."