Teacher Punishes Student Opposing Beef Imports

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is investigating a 53-year-old commercial high school teacher in Seoul for his corporal punishment on his pupil for participating in the ongoing candlelight vigil. The measure came after an online article describing the incident with three pictures showing the teacher punishing the student began to circulate on the Internet.

The Dong-A Ilbo tried to contact both of them on Thursday and Friday to ask about the details of the incident, but only the teacher, surnamed Lee, agreed to a telephone interview. The student, who is only identified by his last name Jeong, could not be reached.

The following is the detailed account of the situation from the teacher.

Lee explained the need to import U.S. beef by quoting an economic daily’s article, titled “Misunderstandings and truth about mad cow disease,” during his international trade class.

In the process, Jeong strongly expressed his opposition, saying that the resumption of American beef imports poses a risk of eating beef from cattle that suffered mad cow disease. In response, Lee underscored the importance of the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States and the difficulties that Korea faces as a heavily trade-dependent country.

As Jeong continued to reason with him, Lee read an excerpt of the newspaper to him, saying that the chance of being infected with CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), the human form of mad cow disease, by eating American beef is one in 4 billion. In response, Jeong said, “That one in 4 billion can be me.”

Lee thought Jeong had too biased a view on the beef issue. Lee asked Jeong to come out to the front of the class and continued to admonish him. In the process, Lee made Jeong kneel on the floor and hit his thighs twice with a stick.

“I asked students to raise their hands if they wanted to film the scene. One student filmed it with his cell phone,” said Lee. “I let the student capture the punishment scene in order to show my support for trade liberalization and opposition to extreme actions, such as Prince Regent Heungseon Daewongun’s isolation policy.”

However, Lee acknowledged that he violated the school’s rule, which bans physical punishment in a public place.

The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers` Union is planning to open a disciplinary board in the near future to decide whether to dismiss Lee from its membership.

kky@donga.com