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| A person glues a mourning message onto a wall of an elementary school in southern Seoul, Sept. 4, after a young teacher who taught at the school took her own life. Yonhap |
Police have launched an investigation into the death of a high school teacher who took his own life amid a lawsuit filed by one of his students injured during class, officials said Monday.
The physical education teacher in his 60s, who taught at a high school in Yongin, just south of Seoul, was found dead on a hiking trail on Mount Cheonggye in the adjacent city of Seongnam on Sunday morning in an apparent suicide.
The teacher, who was reportedly a year away from retirement, was awaiting police questioning in connection with a lawsuit one of his students had filed against him after suffering an eye injury from a ball kicked by a classmate during a class in June while the teacher was briefly away.
The injured student sued the classmate and the teacher on charges of negligence resulting in injury.
Police had recently been in discussion with the teacher to schedule his questioning.
Officials said Monday the Bundang Police Station has launched a forensic analysis into the teacher's mobile phone to determine what led to his suicide, including whether the lawsuit and repeated complaints from the student's side had been the cause.
Police plan to summon colleagues of the teacher and other school officials for questioning soon.
"The case will be investigated in a comprehensive manner, including whether the student's side had raised complaints to the teacher to an extent that goes beyond the social norm," a police official said.
The case marks the latest in a series of suicides by teachers distressed by abusive parents and unruly students. (Yonhap)
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