A case of school bullying

By Cho Hee-kyoung

Earlier this year, "The Glory," a Korean drama series that screened on an OTT platform, became the most-watched non-English program in just a matter of weeks despite dealing with the difficult topic of school bullying. The word "bullying" seems too facile a term for the kind of violence meted out to the victim in the drama which amounted to grievous bodily harm who has third-degree burns inflicted upon her.

Now the abrupt resignation of Chung Sun-sin, President Yoon Suk Yeol's handpicked nominee for the directorship of the National Office of Investigation (NOI), has put the spotlight on the topic of school bullying once again.

Chung's appointment to NOI was controversial from the beginning. Although usually referred to as the Korean equivalent of the FBI, the NOI is in fact a body that sits within the national police force rather than being an independent agency. NOI's purpose is to strengthen the investigative capacity of the police force after taking away much of the investigation powers from the Prosecution Office that was the hallmark of the attempt to defang the latter body. So given that context, appointing a former high-level prosecutor like Chung was seen as a blatant attempt by many to subordinate the NOI to the Prosecution Office compromising its already weak independence.

Having been appointed amid such controversy, it came as a surprise when Chung suddenly announced his resignation barely one day into his appointment. Whenever a candidate for an important government post relinquishes the opportunity or resigns voluntarily, one can be pretty certain that lurking somewhere in the background is either a sex scandal, a corruption scandal, or in the case of Korea, a college admissions scandal. This was the situation for Chung. The impetus for his resignation was the revelation that his son had verbally abused a classmate over an extended period of time in high school.

As more details about the case emerged, it became clear why Chung had acted so swiftly in resigning. It was not merely the fact that Chung's son had engaged in abusive behavior toward a classmate which became so unbearable for the victim that the student tried to take his own life, but also Chung's own involvement that aggravated the case to the extent that there was never a proper acknowledgment nor genuine apology for his son's abusive behavior toward the victim.

This was recorded in as many words by the teachers who were involved in handling the case who noted that Chung and his wife were so concerned about their son being seen to admit liability that they would coach him to change his testimony even after the teachers worked hard to get him to face the truth and accept responsibility for his own actions.

Announcing his resignation, Chung made a public show of contrition saying that he "once again" apologizes to the victim of his son's bullying but the fact was that there was a complete lack of remorse on his part as well as his son's. Despite being ordered to be involuntarily transferred, Chung exploited the system by lodging an appeal against the administrative decision the school had made thereby delaying its implementation. When he lost the administrative appeal, he even took the case to the Supreme Court using as his legal representative a former judge who had recently stepped down from the bench. Those in the know are well aware that this used to be a surefire way to ensure a legal victory in days bygone.

That the Supreme Court eventually also dismissed Chung's appeal did not matter as the legal action was never about whether he won or lost but it was merely a tactic to keep his son's academic records from being marred by the inconvenient fact that he had been disciplined for bullying his classmate. Thanks to Chung's efforts, while these legal shenanigans were ongoing, his son's records were kept pristine and he transferred to a new school that eventually decided to expunge any reference to the bullying incident from the son's records.

In any event, the son managed to gain admission to the philosophy department of the most prestigious university in Korea based on his college admission test scores alone. The university said later that it did take into account the bullying incident since it was simply recorded as verbal abuse and there was no mention of an involuntary transfer. As a result, the demerit points were not significant enough to disqualify the abuser from being admitted. A philosophy major, by the way, is a typical precursor for students wanting to apply to law school later.

In his mind, Chung probably had acted in the best interest of his son as any good father would. But the truth is that he acted more like his son's lawyer than how a good parent should have behaved. A good parent should have given his son a chance to reflect on his actions and to learn empathy. A good parent should have given his son a chance to develop his conscience and to act upon it. A good parent should teach his son the real difference between right and wrong rather than what is expedient and what he can get away with.

The title of the drama "The Glory" is supposed to refer to the glory lost by the victims of school violence. In the case of Chung and his son, if they have thick enough skin, which they seem to judging by their conduct so far, then they would probably continue on a "successful" path in lives full of glory here in Korea. But Chung's own conduct robbed his son of the opportunity to learn the most important quality we as humans can have. Where is the glory in that?

Cho Hee-kyoung (hongikmail@gmail.com) is a professor at Hongik University College of Law.