A classroom of an elementary school in Seoul is vacant on March 17, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Education authorities announced Thursday that teachers in Seoul can request protection if they feel threatened by stalkers or blackmail.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it will begin offering Teacher Safety Insurance that expands the coverage of teacher’s insurance to include damages caused by students and their parents.
The new insurance will be offered to all teachers including part-time positions, except for those on long-term leave.
One of the new services included in the insurance policy is a bodyguard service for teachers, which assigns bodyguards to teachers who are being subject to stalking, blackmail, and other forms of threats that ‘infringe upon educational activities’ for a maximum of 10 days.
Teachers can receive bodyguard protection when heading to a courtroom for a trial related to the violation of teacher’s rights, or both in and outside of school.
A suspect charged with sexual crimes involving the Telegram sexual blackmail ring case shocked the country when he was found to have stalked his high school teacher for years, even attempting to kill the teacher’s children.
Since then, the Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union have called on the need to protect teachers.
The Teacher Safety Insurance also offers a mediation service in which lawyers and other legal experts come to the site of dispute to mediate cases involving teacher’s rights violations.
If a teacher gets embroiled in a legal dispute due to a violation of teacher’s rights, the insurance policy will now disburse 5.5 million won ($4,500) to cover legal expenses, which is 500,000 won more than before.
Under the new insurance policy, a maximum of 200 million won can be paid out to compensate for any act committed by a teacher that caused damage to another party both when the legal dispute comes to a close, and when the disputing parties come up with a resolution prior to filing a lawsuit.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
