First-grader killed by teacher at school

“It didn’t matter who it was. I was planning to die with her,” said Myeong, the teacher who killed Kim Ha-neul, a first grader at an elementary school in Daejeon, as she was trying to return home from her after-school program. Her depression started five years ago, and she has taken sick leave several times since working at the school in 2021. Given that the teacher caused a disturbance after returning leave on December 30 last year, it is questionable whether the school had properly monitored the teacher in question.

There had been at least three opportunities to prevent the tragedy. The teacher applied for six months of leave due to depression in December last year but returned to work after three weeks. When applying for leave, the doctor's opinion that “at least six months of stability is required” was revised to “able to perform normal daily activities.” Given the sudden change in the doctor's opinion and the nature of the teaching profession, a committee meeting should have been held to closely examine whether her condition was sound enough to teach young students.

Myeong destroyed a computer on Wednesday five days before the crime, because he was unable to access the Internet, and strangled a fellow teacher the next day. However, the school reported the case to the Office of Education on Friday, ignoring the recommendation to report to the police. In the morning of the day the incident occurred, a supervisor visited the school and recommended that Myeong be separated by taking sick leave, but the school simply moved her seat next to the vice-principal and was unable to prevent her from going out without permission to buy a weapon around lunchtime.

The student suffered the tragedy while trying to walk to the school gate on her own when the teacher told her that her pick-up bus for art academy had arrived. According to the Ministry of Education's Neulbom School operation policy, students must be accompanied by a guardian when leaving the school. Students may go home on their own with parental consent, but things might have been different if someone had been there to check if she had boarded the bus safely.

Neulbom School, the after-school program for first-grade elementary school students that was introduced last year, was expanded to second-grade students this year. The purpose of the program was to increase the birth rate by reducing the cost of childcare and reducing gaps in childcare. Safety issues had not been reviewed sufficiently in the rush to expand the Neulbom School program. "Teachers who are mentally and physically unstable must be treated and school must take responsibility for the safety of younger grade students returning from school," said the father of the victim. This should have been executed by the education authority a long time ago.