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| ▲ Ji-eun, a victim of child abuse, escapes from the house through a narrow window in the bathroom without any help. | |
| Ⓒ Little Big Pictures Co., Ltd. |
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“When I reported child abuse (the offender) came to school with a knife.”
“After reporting, I only saw cases where the offending caregiver found out and the teacher who reported it was insulting.”
-Practical education teacher meeting’Child abuse report status’ survey statement answering
60.1% of teachers who are obligated to report child abuse answered that they have been hesitant to report child abuse, and 70.1% cited’protection of the reporter’s personal information’ as an improvement for child protection. (Related article: Leave of absence, transfer, moving… Teachers who report child abuse’Endless Byeon’ http://omn.kr/1ra6d)
On the 11th, the Practical Education Teachers’ Association announced that it conducted a survey on the status of child abuse among 800 elementary, middle and high school teachers nationwide from the 6th to the 10th.
In this survey using a Google questionnaire, 65.9% of teachers answered that they have experienced suspicious cases of child abuse. 39.8% said they had witnessed cases of teaching students, and 26.1% said that there had been an abuse case at work school.
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| ▲ Results of the survey of practical education teachers meeting. | |
| Ⓒ Meeting of practical education teachers |
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However, 19.3% of teachers who participated in this survey reported child abuse reports. When asked,’Have you ever hesitated to report?’, teachers 60.1% answered’yes’ and 39.9% answered’nothing’. More than half of teachers hesitate to report child abuse.
Many teachers cited’I’m afraid the child’s situation will get worse after reporting’ (33.8%) and’I’m not sure about child abuse’ (32.5%) as’the reason for hesitating to report.’
However, the distrust of the procedure after reporting was not low at 33.6%. ‘Because of the threat of the perpetrator’ accounted for 14.1%, 10.8% for’distrust in the proceedings after reporting’, and 8.7% for’because of having a lawsuit after reporting.’
As a result, teachers responded with multiple responses as’points to be improved for child protection’ as’separation of abused caregivers and students after reporting’ (76.5%) as well as’protection of the reporter’s personal information’ (70.1%). ‘Protection of reporters in case of lawsuits by offenders’ was also 55.8%. Next,’Early development of families with signs of abuse through reinforcement of the welfare system’ (35.4%),’Operation of effective educational programs for abused caregivers’ (29.6%),’Restriction of parental rights of the offender’ (28.2%), and’Child welfare. Manpower expansion’ (26.0%).
Representative of the Practical Education Teachers’ Association “Need to take protective measures for teachers reporting child abuse”
Hee-jeong Han, CEO of the Practical Education Teachers’ Group, said, “The teachers are only obligated to report child abuse, but the reporter protection measures are not being taken.” There is a need to come up with a variety of measures for this.”
Teachers are obligated to report under the Act on Special Cases concerning the punishment of child abuse crimes. If you do not report it without justifiable reason, you will have to pay a fine of 5 million won.