A classroom. This photo is unrelated to the article. [Yonhap]
A classroom. This photo is unrelated to the article. [Yonhap]

A first-year student at a Seoul high school threatened to kill a teacher while wielding a knife, it has emerged. The teacher has since undergone psychiatric treatment and has yet to return to work.

According to documents submitted to People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Seong-guk of the National Assembly's Education Committee by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, a first-year student at a public high school in Seoul grabbed a kitchen knife from the teachers' office and threatened a teacher on May 13.

The incident began when the information technology teacher noticed the student had not moved to the computer lab with the rest of the class and remained in the classroom. The teacher alerted the homeroom teacher, who went to the classroom with the head of academic affairs and woke the sleeping student, urging him to join the lesson.

Once awake, the student made threatening remarks toward the teachers before pulling a kitchen knife from a drawer in the sink area of the first-year teachers' office. In front of multiple teachers, he threatened to kill the head of academic affairs.

A teacher at the scene immediately seized the knife, and the school reported the student to police. The homeroom teacher suffered serious psychological trauma, underwent psychiatric treatment, and has not been able to return to work even after exhausting special leave and sick leave.

The student had displayed dangerous behavior on two prior occasions. On April 6, he was found holding a paring knife, and on April 30, he picked up a sharp chisel. The school classified both incidents as mental health crisis cases requiring student support rather than violations of educational activities.

The affected teacher's side has said they demanded the student be immediately separated from the teacher after the direct death threat in May, but that the school failed to act swiftly. In practice, the school did not report the student's emergency suspension to the district education office until June 4 — 22 days after the incident.

The school said the student had been admitted to a hospital from May 13 to May 22 and had not attended school after his discharge, meaning he was effectively separated from the teacher. The affected teacher, however, raised concerns that the absence of a formal administrative measure such as a suspension left her in persistent fear that the student could return to school at any time.

"Under the Teacher Status Act, when an act that interferes with educational activities occurs, the protection of the affected teacher and the separation of the perpetrator must take place immediately," Jeong said. He added that he plans to call for an audit of whether adequate protection and separation measures were carried out, as well as a review of how the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the school handled reporting and teacher protection overall.


bbo@heraldcorp.com