High School Student Murdered a Classmate During Class

A murder case was reported that a high school student stabbed his classmate to death with a kitchen knife during the middle of class.

It was shockingly discovered that a homicide student has felt an impulse to murder the classmate who had habitually harassed him, as he watched a movie `Friends` over 40 times containing violent gangsters` story.

▼ Crime Scene

In a chemical engineering classroom of D information high school, Yongho-Dong, Nam-Gu, Pusan City, Kim (16) stabbed the left back of Park (16) to murder with a kitchen knife and ran away at 10: 10 am on Oct. 13th.

According to the classmates, while missing school from 29th last month, he brought a kitchen knife covered with a newspaper, and stabbed once in the left back of Park sitting on the rear during the second class.

When the murder took place, teacher Shin (41) was conducting a note inspection of 29 students who was attending a `social studies` class. The teacher and students could not stop the crime which was committed by Kim who suddenly came into the classroom.

▼ Motive of a Crime

Kim said that Park had harassed him since last March when he entered school and he was mortified at being assaulted one-sidedly, so he murdered Park.

And Kim stated that he was harboring a grudge against Park, and felt an impulse to retaliate after watching `Friends` over 40 times on the computer. Kim`s classmates said that in spite his bigger size over Park, he has been intolerably teased by Park who has been regarded as a boss in the class.

▼ Problematic

This case proved how visual contents that glorify violence influence the sensitive and vulnerable youths.

The school and teachers said that both Kim and Park grew up in the dysfunctional families, and Kim of an introversive nature had not many friends. Park, on the other hand, was popular among the classmates because he had an active characteristic, to the extent that he took a head of class. However, neither one of them belonged to a domestic violent circle.

▼ Expert`s Diagnosis

Prof. Sohn Seung-Gil (56, Ethics) of Donga University said, ``It is a serious social problem that peoples are recently being exposed to the violent movies such as `Friends`, `Wife of Gangster Boss`, and `Moonlight Night In Shilla`, and the sadistic computer games.`` And ``the diversified countermeasures should be established in order to rule out the violent culture and school violence, besides strengthening the social restraint mechanism and intensifying the ethical education to elevate the sense of guilt on the criminal behaviors.``

Jo Young-Hwi silent@donga.com