The charges of child abuse by two childcare teachers at a daycare center in Incheon that were arrested show that their crimes were close to’normal’. They are accused of abusing 10 students aged 1-6, including children with disabilities, 268 times at a public daycare center in Seo-gu, Incheon from November to December last year. However, parents of victims insist that it is likely not all.
One of the parents of the victims, Mr. A, argued that “the abuse that had existed before November when the CCTV records were erased will also be revealed through forensics.” He cried, saying, “We found out about the abuse too late.”
Nursery teachers at a national and public daycare center in Seo-gu, Incheon, for whom an arrest warrant has been requested for continuing abuse of an inmate, are entering the Incheon District Court in Michuhol-gu, Incheon to receive an interrogation (warrant substantive examination) before arrest on the afternoon of the 15th. News 1
“I didn’t even know in my dreams for 6 months”
On the 16th, parents said, “It is a very difficult structure to know what is happening inside the daycare center.” Mr. A said, “The daycare center teachers that I see for a bit in the morning called my child’s name and always hugged me,” he said. He said, “Even if the children cried at dawn and beat their mother, I had no choice but to believe the words of the daycare center, “The child is doing well.”
According to Mr. A, 10 affected children attended this daycare center for 2 to 10 months each. They were all children with disabilities or young children who could not speak. Mr. A said, “Eight teachers picked only children in the integrated disability class and infants who couldn’t speak and harassed them,” he said. “After the investigation began, the offender cried, saying,’I never did that. Thank you for your trust.'”
The abused daycare teachers are grilling meat and the children sit on mats and watch media videos on their laptops. yunhap news
CCTV, if you saw even one
Parents said, “We should have known of the abuse sooner.” This is because it would not have been difficult for someone to see the situation of the abuse if they watched the CCTV video for a while.
According to parents, it was on December 23 last year that the abuses of daycare teachers were revealed. A handicapped child, who was 5 years old at the time, had a wound on the earlobe. It was a child with a severe disability with poor cognitive and language communication skills. Parents said, “Please show me CCTV,” but the daycare center refused. The reason was that it did not meet the CCTV viewing requirements proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. According to the manual of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, in principle, CCTV footage of a daycare center can be viewed only with the consent of the video performers.
On the morning of the 8th, in front of Incheon City’s Seo-gu Office, four groups of persons with disabilities, including the Incheon Disabled Discrimination Solidarity, and five parents of child abuse victims of Western national and public daycare centers held a press conference condemning the Western-gu Office and urged them to strict punishment and follow-up response to the teachers who abuse the daycare center. News 1
The police didn’t even give me CCTV.
On December 28 last year, when parents even called the police, the daycare center released CCTV footage. Only in the 1 hour and 40 minute video released, there were 8 cases of abuse. The police enlisted daycare teachers. Mr. A exclaimed, “The past video would have been erased little by little during the 5 days without CCTV. If it was later, the teachers might have erased the video,” he said.
In 21 days after the investigation began, parents were able to watch CCTV. On the 17th of last month, the police gave parents an’eye only’ view of the additional abuse video. This is because, according to the Personal Information Protection Act, investigative agencies cannot provide the collected video information to a third party without the consent of the party. During the police investigation, Mr. A released a video of abuse damage taken with a smartphone by CCTV footage to reporters. There was a scene where Mr. A’s daughter was abused by two teachers.
As a result of this, a local police station also said to parents victims of child abuse that it would cost 200 million won to mosaic the characters in the video, and “pay 200 million won to see and see.”
Kim Mi-sook, an auditor of the Korean Society of Child Welfare, advised that “the standards for viewing CCTV at nurseries should be relaxed.” “Parents have the right to see how their children are doing,” said Kim said. “The procedure for viewing CCTV at daycare centers is more difficult in Korea than overseas.” Auditor Kim said, “When there is a lot of social anxiety like now, you can think of a plan for the government or parent committee to come up with a system that allows CCTV inspections to be carried out unannounced.” On the other hand, a lawyer who specializes in the Personal Information Protection Law pointed out that “the human rights of other innocent childcare teachers should also be respected,” and “Personal Information Protection Law should be carefully reviewed.”
According to the police, a specialized child protection agency is performing forensics on CCTV in this daycare center. Mr. A said, “It’s a video you should have seen earlier,” but said, “It’s very hard to see an additional child being hit.”
Reporter Kyung-Hyun Kyung-Hyun [email protected]