Korean Job Discussion Forums

D.D. · Joined: 29 May 2008

I have not witnessed much abuse in my school in two years. I know it is none of business but this teacher was just beating the crap out of a 15 year girl. Just couldn't hold it in anymore and with 6 other teachers in the office I yelled at him to stop. It was obvious he was in a soju hangover abuse mode at 9 am. I guess I will hear back for this but I don't care. this guy went at least 60% overboard and was pulling her around and hitting her very hard over and over.

Ramen · Joined: 15 Apr 2008

dean_burrito · Joined: 12 Jun 2007

Good for you D.D. I'd a pulled outta can of whoop ass myself. This isn't a case of cultural differences and if it is wo what. It sounds more like a case of office workers being afraid to stand up to a senior teacher. Let us know more about the aftermath of this one.

bobbybigfoot · Joined: 05 May 2007 Location: Seoul

D.D. · Joined: 29 May 2008

Students still crying and holding her 45 minutes later. Full swings of the stick from over his head and pulling her around. The chiropractor in me just couldn't stand the shoulder trauma that was happening.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

God that sounds awful. Thankfully I've never seen anything quite *that* bad at my school. Hopefully he'll realise what an ass he was and you won't become the object of everyone's resentment. The last time I saw something that really made me queasy (two very solid punches to the head of a second-year HS student) it resulted in the student and teacher writing apology letters to each other. Hopefully something gets sorted out in your case but it sure doesn't sound good.

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

AgentM · Joined: 07 Jun 2009 Location: British Columbia, Canada

I agree with what most have said, you did the right thing DD. I don't think I could have stood for that either. In a country where corporal punishment is accepted, I suppose reasonable amounts of punishment would be acceptable (i.e. not hitting too hard), but it clearly sounds like this guy was going way overboard!

nathanrutledge · Joined: 01 May 2008 Location: Marakesh

Our head teacher whacked a kid with a mop handle last year. That pushed me over the edge. I had already told my coworkers that I didn't want them hitting the kids near me (my desk was nearest the open "paddling area"), which they happily obliged, and when I told my coworker what had happened, and that I felt it was inappropriate, she talked to the head teacher. He himself admitted that he had gone too far and had already talked with the kid and they had got it worked out. Good job D.D., don't stay quiet.

toadhjo · Joined: 07 Apr 2009

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

Not all of the Germans there did, either. There was a resistance movement, some of whose members were executed by the Nazi regime. Being German-American myself, it gets under my skin when people use a fake German accent or toss out the word German to identify someone who is like a Nazi. I expect better from somone with a university education from an advanced nation.

JJJ · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Location: Seoul

Yeah, it's still amazing and frustrating that you (or I) can say something and get in big trouble while they just let it slide for the Korean.

Or, you pull a bad boy out of the class and put him in the hallway, and the next day you have a friggin' meeting because the parents complained while you just saw that same boy get the crap beat out of him by the punishment teacher a day earlier.

Sparkling... Laughing

Goon-Yang · Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Duh

poet13 · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:38 pm Post subject:

So what's your point Goon Yang?

Anyway DD, I'll chime in. I think you did right too.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Well done DD. You did the right thing. It's never been wrong to stand up to bullying and cowardness. And to me, that sounds like what was going on in that teachers' office.

It's very easy just to let this sort of brutality slide (that's what the K teachers were doing). But if you have any humanity and compassion - it's very hard to see an adult brutalising a child.

I lost my last PS job through K teachers beating my students. They were simply amazed, then embarrassed, when I told them that educated, trained and professional westerners don't fly half way around the world to see children being abused. They were also surprised when I told them that an adult in my country, who saw seeing adult hit a child with a truncheon - would defend that kid by beating the ..... out of the attacker. And, when the attacker went to prison (a certainty), they would be gang raped by other inmates (who most likely grew up in abusive families).

I moved out of that school's teachers' office - and it eventually cost me my job at contract re-signing. That's no problem for a pacifist. I've also moved out of the teachers' office in my latest PS school - and have my own private office. Thankfully, I don't have to see this sort of cromagnon behavior anymore as my present school doesn't hit kids in my classroom. In fact, I have a 'no hitting' policy in my classroom - kids and adults alike.

Anyway, DD. I salute you - you haven't lost your humanity.