Gangwon education chief files criminal complaint against parent over teacher harassment

Gangwon Province Superintendent of Education Kang Sam-young filed a criminal complaint Wednesday with the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency against a parent, identified only as A, on charges including defamation, insult and threats under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, as well as trespassing, over conduct that interfered with a teacher's educational activities.

According to the provincial teachers' rights protection committee, the parent had repeatedly filed undue complaints against a homeroom teacher and unlawfully interfered with the teacher's legitimate educational activities since April.

A is also accused of posting the teacher's full name on social media and online bulletin boards accessible to the public, along with false statements about classroom management, defamatory content, threatening remarks and severe verbal abuse, on multiple occasions.

The committee's investigation found that A continued the disruptive behavior even after being notified of the local teachers' rights protection committee's decision, including visiting the school and shouting at the homeroom teacher in front of students.

The committee said A also made unreasonable demands to the school principal and posted abusive, defamatory content online during August and September.

The homeroom teacher has since returned to school following special leave but continues to suffer from severe anxiety, psychological distress and fears for personal safety. The school principal has also reported mental anguish and difficulties in running the school.

The provincial education office's teachers' rights protection support team determined that A's conduct was extremely serious and, after consulting with a dedicated teachers' rights attorney and outside legal counsel and completing a review by the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Teachers' Rights Protection Committee, concluded that the case warranted criminal liability.

The Gangwon Provincial Office of Education said the superintendent's criminal complaint is grounded in Article 20, Paragraph 4 of the Act on the Status and Remedies for Rights of Teachers, which allows a competent authority informed of educational activity infringement and the resulting protective measures to file a complaint with the relevant investigative agency if it determines the conduct falls under criminal punishment provisions of applicable law.

"I deliberated carefully and with a heavy heart, as this involves the superintendent directly filing a complaint against a parent," Kang said. "But I could no longer stand by while the homeroom teacher and principal struggled not only in their professional duties but in their daily lives, and while students' right to an education was being violated. I decided it was necessary to hold the person strictly accountable."