Court says child's age, seriousness of conduct should be taken into account when determining whether action constitutes school violence
South Korea’s top court has ruled that a first grader who injured a classmate by pushing him off a podium did not commit school violence, stressing that not every act causing physical or psychological harm between students should automatically be classified as such.
The Supreme Court on Sept. 3 upheld an appellate court ruling that sided with a local education office’s Administrative Appeals Commission, which had canceled a corrective measure imposed on the student, according to legal circles Sunday.
The case dates to 2023, when a 7-year-old injured a classmate by pushing them off an approximately 80-centimeter-high podium during an after-school extracurricular activity.
The local education office’s school violence deliberation committee determined that the incident constituted school violence and ordered the student to submit a written apology.
The student’s family challenged the measure through an administrative appeal. The education office’s Administrative Appeals Commission subsequently concluded that the student’s actions did not constitute school violence and nullified the apology order.
The injured student’s family then filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn the commission’s decision.
A lower court initially sided with the injured student’s family, finding that the first grader’s conduct constituted school violence and that he would have been capable of recognizing that pushing his classmate could cause injury.
An appellate court, however, reversed the ruling, citing the student’s young age and finding that the incident was not sufficiently serious to warrant corrective measures or classification as school violence.
The Supreme Court upheld that decision.
Top court calls for comprehensive review of all factors
In its ruling, the top court said determining whether conduct constitutes school violence requires more than assessing whether it falls within the statutory definition.
Courts should comprehensively consider factors including the seriousness of the conduct, the circumstances surrounding the incident, the students’ ages and relationship, and the need both to protect the victim and to guide and educate the student responsible, the top court said.
It added that children’s cognitive and judgment abilities change significantly as they develop, making their developmental stage an important consideration when determining the need for educational or corrective intervention.
The court also cautioned against treating every incident between students that appears to cause physical, psychological or property damage as school violence.
Doing so could result in children being labeled as perpetrators even when there is little need for victim protection or corrective education, potentially leading to unjustified infringements on the rights of the student responsible, it added.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
