South Korean court defines boundaries of school violence — Korea Herald
South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld an appellate ruling that did not recognize as school violence the actions of a first-grade student who injured a classmate by pushing them off a podium. The court stressed that not every act by a student that causes physical or psychological harm to another student should automatically be classified as school violence.
As Korea Herald reports, on September 3 the Supreme Court supported the conclusions of the appellate court and the Administrative Appeals Commission of the local education office. The commission had previously overturned a corrective measure imposed on the student — a requirement to submit a written apology.
The 2023 incident
The incident occurred in 2023 during an extracurricular activity. A seven-year-old student pushed a classmate off a podium approximately 80 centimeters high, causing the classmate to suffer an injury. The School Violence Countermeasures Committee at the local education office recognized the incident as school violence and ordered the child to provide a written apology.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The student’s family challenged the decision through administrative procedures. The Administrative Appeals Commission concluded that the child’s actions did not constitute school violence and annulled the apology requirement. The injured student’s family went to court, seeking to overturn the commission’s decision.
Circumstances and the students’ age
The court of first instance sided with the injured student’s family, noting that a first-grader could understand that a push could cause injury. However, the appellate court overturned this conclusion, taking into account the child’s young age and the insufficient severity of the incident to apply corrective measures or recognize it as school violence.
The Supreme Court stated that when assessing such cases, not only the formal criteria provided by law should be considered. Courts must comprehensively assess the severity of the act, the circumstances of the incident, the students’ age and relationship, as well as the need to protect the injured child and provide an educational influence on the student who committed the act. The court also noted that children’s cognitive abilities and their capacity to assess their own actions change significantly during development.
