November 23, 2023
SEOUL – A video showing a quarrel between a female student and a male teacher has sparked online controversy.
The video shows a female student, believed to be a high schooler, arguing loudly in the hallway with a middle-aged male teacher.
The quarrel between the two begins when the teacher loudly instructs the student to go inside the classroom. The student argues back, saying “Why are you yelling at me? Don’t you think I’m a precious daughter of our family?”
The teacher looked flustered for a moment while the student went on, “I’m not someone you can walk all over. Why did you grab my hair?”
The teacher reportedly said that he only grabbed the student’s bag and it was entangled in her hair. But the student claimed continuously that he pulled her hair.
The sound of giggles was also captured and it is believed that another female student who was filming the situation snickered at the scene.
Getting upset from the students’ attitude, the teacher tries to end the situation saying, “Having fun, are you? Well, keep doing then.”
The student retorts sarcastically, saying “Did you have fun when you grabbed my hair?” She argued over and over again, following the teacher who was about to leave the place.
The teacher shouts that he will take the students’ behavior to a committee for teachers’ rights, but the student keeps taunting the teacher. The scene shown in the video ends when another older male, who appears to be another teacher, approaches.
According to the explanation posted along with the video, the quarrel occurred when the student was caught by the teacher trying to go to the cafeteria during class. The teacher grabbed the student’s bag to restrain her but the student argued that he grabbed her hair.
The video became controversial as the case illustrate teachers’ loss of authority. While concerns over teachers rights grew in Korea this year, many expressed bitter feelings over the decline of teachers’ authority and students’ inappropriate behavior.