Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bloopity Bloop]

I stepped into the teacher's room at my school yesterday and found myself walking into some sort of press conference. The room was filled with police officers, my school's faculty/admin, and even the head (and a few of his lackeys) of my district. I have noticed, over the past week or so, police cars parked in and around my school and the occasional pair of uniforms patrolling the campus. I was later told that the police in Seoul (maybe all over Korea?) are trying to increase presence in schools because of some guy that sexually assaulted elementary (middle school?) students.

Does anyone else know about this? I'm all for protecting our kids but this doesn't really seem like a viable solution at all. It just seems to me like whoever is in charge of this op is just trying to make a big show of, "LOOK AT US, WE'RE DOING SOMETHING!" Yeah, something is better than nothing, and perhaps this is a necessary demonstration of action, but seriously? They're gonna have a pair of cops walk around every school in Seoul? Are there even that many cops in this city?

What scares me is even my 2nd graders often walk home alone. I think some time should be spent educating these kids on safety. Perhaps encouraging children to walk home together and to be a bit more vigilant. I often see my students talking to random strangers--maybe it's just the communal nature of Korea. Seems a bit dodgy to me.

Obviously, I don't know much about the situation or the nature of Korean society, but that's what I've drawn from my own observations. I could be completely wrong, I'm just surprised I haven't yet seen a thread about this here.

[warmachinenkorea]

Maybe because of this...
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921634

I have no idea if this is the reason but it would be a nice idea for kids to be monitered and drunk strangers not allowed to roam the halls of a school for an hr with a box cutter.

[NYC_Gal]

I agree that the buddy system would be a good way to help the little'uns.

[Bloopity Bloop]

warmachine: Yes, I think it was supposed to be about that total waste of human life piece of garbage.

nycgal: Let's start a campaign!

In any case, some of my kids just ran into my office alerting me about some "isanghae man" outside. Turns out, it was just a delivery man from E-Mart I guess someone HAS been talking to them about vigilance.

[NYC_Gal]

[egrog1717]

Not really surprised about kids talking to strangers...

Anyone who's touched the elementary school curriculum knows it's full of things like:

Stranger comes up to young girl on the sidewalk. Points to girl inside of a store
Man: "Who's that?"
Girl: "He's Minsu, she's my brother"
Man: "Oh, he's nice"

[egrog1717]

Also, maybe now they'll stop letting random people WANDER THROUGH THE EFFING SCHOOL!...
I'm tired of people coming in off the street and poking their noses into my classroom while I'm in the middle of a lesson... Parents or not they shouldn't be in the school unless they're there to watch a class or pick up a kid, and should have to wear a visitor's badge like they do back home...

From the article:

[egrog1717]

Wow... Just wow...

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921958

[Xuanzang]

My school has these prison like gates that cover each staircase. They get shut after a certain hour. Doesn't mean a thing as the front and backdoors are wide open from 8-2:30.

[mayorgc]

Korean society is similar to how the west was back in the 90s, i'm guessing.

Lots of trust, not too much worry and a sort of ignorant bliss regarding the safety of their kids.

We've all seen kids outside by themselves after dark, playing, no supervision.

It's probably what most of us did back when we were kids.

For western Canadians, that changed with the Michael Dunahee case, 1990 i think. where all parents clamped down on their kids after he disappeared.

I thought the Kim Gil Tae or Jo Du sun Case would have a similar effect, but I guess not really. I still see too many young kids out by themselves at night, playing.

And there are almost zero measures in place regarding strangers and school grounds.

Kids in the west are under constant supervision during lunch breaks and what not, in most schools, there are zero eyes on the kids. The only person to keep an eye on the kids during the break is me.

Recently, Jehova's witnesses came to my school and asked one of the teachers "Is there a foreigner teacher teaching here?" My coworker didn't know he was a Jehova's witness, he was just a stranger asking about the foreigner teacher.

In the west, one possible response to a question like that would be "who are you and what are you doing here?"

the teacher's response was "he's over there" and pointed the JW to my classroom.

Many many years ago, a U.S english teacher was killed by a psycho Korean who just walked into a hagwon or something and asked where the english teacher was.

I should have been upset at my coworker, but I guess he really just didn't know any better.

[NYC_Gal]

It depends where in the west. I had supervision in the 80s. I think the view in most of the west changed in the 80s, when they started the missing kids on milk cartons program.

[crossmr]

I've noticed there are 4 or 5 cops hanging around the elementary school at the end of my street off and on for hmm.. at least a month maybe longer.
Can't be just what happened on the 10th.

When I was in grade 5 there was an escaped serial killer loose where I lived. We had halloween inside that year, a party. He was caught though and next year we were back to the same thing.

[NYC_Gal]

I spoke to my KT today, and asked if it would be a good idea to organize groups for walking home, rather than have these little bitty kids walking alone for 15-20 minutes. She said the parents would handle it.

Sighs... Nobody'd better touch my honorary little sister.

[moosehead]

[Goon-Yang]