Foreigners expose abusive daycare center.

Last week a Dave's poster snapped pictures of toddlers being locked outside, naked, in the January weather by people at a Seoul daycare. A couple of posters and spouses got together, went to the police, and eventually to the media. An article ran in Ohmynews and was on the front page of Cyworld today. I just saw that Naver picked it up (same article), too.

The Dave's thread is here. The media reaction starts on page 7.

* Update 1: Definitely worth pointing out that the police did nothing. From one of the posters involved:

The conversation with the police basically went like this:

"Do you have kids going to this daycare?"
"No."
"Do you know someone who does?"
"No."
"Then why do you care?"

The cop then told my wife she couldn't report the crime because she hadn't witnessed it, even though she had the pictures.

* Update 2: Koreabeat has posted a translation of the article floating around. The name of the daycare has been left out, owing to some screwy libel laws. You can find it if you dig through the Dave's thread. The people at the daycare initially denied the charges:

Park Ahmugae, the owner, angrily said, “the 25th was our sports day, so nothing like that happened. This is an untrue rumor which should not have been spoken. Who says we used naked punishments? Somebody is speaking nonsense.”

Another employee at the daycare denied the allegations. “How could such a punishment have been used on such a terribly cold day? This isn’t the 19th century, I would feel sick just to hear of such a thing.”

“I could sue you for slander,” the employee said. After reproaching the reporter, the employee raged, “old people have no work to do, don’t you know we’re running a day care? Doesn’t Oh My News have anything better to do?”

* Update 3: The networks will be having short pieces on the story tonight, as the poster involved was interviewed several times. The first one to air was from SBS, although it made no mention of a foreigner or that the story was broken by her. You can see a 41-second video report on the SBS site, although it wasn't the one that just ran on the 8 o'clock news.

* Update 4: Korea Beat has appended an Ohmynews update to their original story. In spite of the denials earlier in the day, the nursery has now admitted abuse took place. The latest piece is pretty tough to stomach, and I really hope the "severe punishment" coming from the Yongsan-gu Office (don't know what that is) will be more severe than we've seen with other cases of teacher misconduct. Here's an excerpt from an interview with the 25-year-old woman who carried out these punishments:

“I didn’t make him take his clothes off, he did that himself. And how could I have put a little girl out into the cold in just her underpants? I didn’t do it for very long.”

L added, “the responsibility is mine and I will put in my resignation. Though I cannot work with kids again I hope that the school will not be closed.”

The initial Ohmynews report, and the Dave's post, say the school is for low-income families, so hopefully its clients aren't left without a place to go.

* Update 5: Video from KBS (click 동영상보기). Contains a short soundbite from the foreign witness.

* Update 6: I also saw the report on MBC, though it doesn't seem to be available online. They had more with the foreign witness, although they didn't do a great job of masking her identity. They didn't give her an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" voice, like they did the Koreans, and there was only a subtle blur on her face.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out: whether the teacher and school are held responsible, or whether they'll get slaps on the wrist. I (naively) hope this emboldens others to take a stand on abuses they see around them. Foreigners know the risks that go with intervening in domestic squabbles, bar fights, or animal abuse cases, and I'm not really talking about them. It's too risky and too dangerous, and from this story, the Metropolitician's, and others, we know that the police are unreliable and generally incompetent. I'm actually talking about Koreans, and I wonder if this incident will inspire some to come forward and stand up to what they believe is wrong. The original poster on Dave's, after all, wasn't the only neighbor of the school, and almost surely wasn't the only person to witness these abuses. But the foreign witness was the only person to come forward. From the news reports and the netizen reaction, we can see some Koreans are upset about this abuse case, and I wonder how many of these commenters are pissed that nobody else in the neighborhood did anything. Moreover, this isn't a case that can easily be intpreted as foreigners imposing their own value system on Korea . . . cases of animal abuse or domestic violence, on the other hand, are often written off as cultural differences that foreigners just can't understand, and in which they oughtn't interfere. If the teacher and the school get off with a light punishment, however, or no punishment at all, it will probably prevent others from coming forward in similar situations in the future.

And I don't mean to cheapen the situation, but it's worth mentioning a point Zen Kimchi made. He's right when he wrote:

I wonder if [the media] get the irony that it was one of those foreign English teachers (which they broadly portray as pot smokers and molesters) who exposed the practices of this Seoul daycare by taking this picture and posting the details on Dave’s.

No secret that Korean teachers behaving badly get better treatment in the media than foreigners---foreigners behaving badly or otherwise. I'll go out on a limb and predict that, whatever happens here, this woman and this school will get off much more lightly than a foreigner would in a similar situation. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if her excuse---she was mad---is enough. I'm not trying to start a pissing contest between "us" and "them" because we wouldn't win it's not appropriate in a story like this. But I hope that in all the hoopla the whistleblower isn't simply relegated to "witness" or clever foreigner, but that it's made clear that she exposed this nasty abuse in the first place. That when others were content to live and let live, and not intrude on anybody's or any school's privacy, the only person to desire any sort of change was the foreigner.

Special thanks also go out to the other Dave's poster. I'm wary of using their IDs, but you know who they are. He and his wife took the original post to the next level and got results. I still can't believe the gall of those police officers, who didn't want an investigation to interfere with their 8-hour coffee break. Now that's an angle I wish would get covered.

* Update 7: The post on Dave's has been pulled is back, minus a few pages of flaming.

* Update 8: See Korea Beat's translation of an interview with the foreign eyewitness and whistleblower.

2007: In case you missed it.

Nobody can deny that foreigners in Korea are a despicable bunch and must be stopped. Thankfully there are new regulations in place that will send most foreigners to the countries that most deserve an influx of barbarians: China and Japan. We can honestly pin most of South Korea's social ills on white people, who spend most of their time touching children, smoking dope, harassing Korean women, eating hamburgers, punching cab drivers, and forging degrees. Some of these godless monstrosities even teach private lessons. Immigration is quite right to "eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes." I believe immigration is targeting the correct demographic, for improperly documented foreign teachers and their penchant for tutoring and cunnilingus pose an enormous threat to the survival of Korean society. As I've said before, you can never have too many documentaries, exposes, and columns about white people and their cheating ways.

But for the sake of balance I thought I'd share a few news stories of 2007 you might have missed. The headlines were dominated by foreigners behaving badly, so you might not have seen some other interesting developments. The in-demand pitcher of 2001 Chan-ho Park has bravely and selflessly decided to put his MLB career on hold in order to pitch for the national team, for example. With regard to criminal foreigners, to defend our good name against this xenophobic, race-baitng witch hunt add balance I've linked a few stories about the Korean frauds, perverts, and shitty teachers left unchecked, if only to show the negative influence these intruders have had.

Academic fraud

** Shin Jeong-ah - professor pegged as art director for the 2008 Gwangju Bienalle said she earned a Ph.D. from Yale University. The most high-profile story in the forgery scandal, her man on the side was a government official who helped conceal her forgery and funnel money into her projects.
** Venerable Jigwang - notable Buddhist monk who said he had a degree from Seoul National University.
** Lee Ji-young - radio host of KBS's "Good Morning Pops," Gwangyang native and former Suncheon National University student who built her reputation on her impressive overseas education that never took place.
** Lee Pil-sang - President of Korea University plagarized his students' theses.
** Ma Kwang-soo - poet, novelist, and Yonsei University professor plagarized her students' works.
** Ahn Yoo-jin (안유진) - bellydancer, used forged documents to get a part-time gig at Kwangju Women's University in 2006.
** Jeong Deok-hui (정덕희) - professor, author, actor
** Jun Yeong-hun (준영훈) - singer
** Lee Chang-ha - architect and professor who claimed to have a degree from New Bridge University's non-existant school of fine arts.
** Kim Ock-rang - professor and owner of a "performing arts space" who admitted to buying her degree from a California diploma mill.
** Daniel Henney - actor, model. Some online sources erroneously reported that he graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to his manager, as quoted in the Korea Times, “With the recent issue about academic records, we avoided correcting the problem because we were afraid it would reflect badly.”
** Choi Soo-jung - popular actor, humanitarian, good husband. Some of his official biographies erroneously claimed he graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and from an American university.
** Jang Mi-hee - singer
** "Fake degree scandal hits sports figures"
** Fake foreign degrees were popular in the military as well.
** "Deception" 2007 Word of the Year

Damn, too bad this is only about 2007. Otherwise I could have included Kim Byong-joon, the former fucking Minister of Education who resigned in 2006 after he admitted he plagarized his students. (HT to The Wanderer)

Teachers behaving badly

** Field trip to China and prostitutes
** Teacher beats students with a bamboo sword, gets a warning (HT to Gusts of Popular Feeling)
** Teacher who molests students gets a suspension and a transfer.
** Teacher leaks standardized test questions to students, parents, and cram schools
** Leaked questions feared to be widespread in Gyeonggi-do
** "Netizens Claim Teachers Helped Students Cheat on SATs."
** 5 Suncheon middle school students killed in bus crash on field trip
** Teacher bakes, beats students.
** "Children to Bear the Brunt if Parents Bribe Teachers." The Korea Federation of Teacher's Associations of course criticized this policy.
** If U R YOUNG & WHITE, U R ALRIGHT @ Bundang Kids Club!!!
** Teacher causes student to pass out over haircut.
** Suncheon teacher humilates high school class for being late.
** "Korean Teachers Wrong on FTA Facts."
** "Gov’t Warns Teachers Union Off Anti-FTA Classes"
** "Entrusting Our Children to Dangerous Lunatics."
** "One in five male high school students have had their hair chopped off by a teacher, a study has found."


Sexual misconduct

** Gwangju middle school girl held captive in motel and raped by 800 men.
** I'm gonna go ahead and say that again. Gwangju middle school girl held captive in motel and raped by 800 men.
** Man molests 11-year-old stepdaughter, found not guilty by reason of liquor.
** Government gives gifts to people who don't fuck whores on New Year's
** Hampyeong county police lieutentant puts cameras in bathrooms.
** Taxi driver rapes and kills two women in Seoul.
** Korea a "danger country" for women.
** Goyang detective kidnaps, rapes, robs women.
** "Chatting with the Beauties" star reveals her professor offered good grades in return for sex.
** "Teenage Sex Crimes Tripled in 8 Years"
** "Alleged South Korean Rape Cult Leader Arrested in China"


Just a reminder to any foreign teachers out there . . . please prepare your academic transcripts and your criminal background checks. Matter of fact I was just reminded again today about having a criminal check, two health exams, and my original degree. We can never be too careful when Korea's children are at stake. If you get too stressed out about these new visa and need to go running for the shelter of your mother's little helper, you'd better know that you're more likely to find drugs on a Korean than on a foreigner.

Teachers pounding students.

There's been so many nasty little stories in the news lately, it's hard to keep up and write intelligent posts. It's been hard to write any sort of post lately, as blogger was apparently blocked for the past couple of days. Everything seems to be normal as of about 5 p.m. today, but almost everyone I've read in the Korean blogosphere was affected by it.

Anyway, I read on Lost Nomad today about a nasty beatdown given to a high school student by his teacher. Apparently the student and his friends had been chronicly tardy, and the teacher had had enough of his lateness and his lies. So the teacher beat him with what the Chosun Ilbo calls a bamboo sword, and what is probably the long rod they use in kendo. A student captured the incident on his camera, and I've preserved it on youtube here. As written in the Chosun Ilbo article, "The principal of the school said, "The teacher apologized to the two students who were punished and the other students in the class. I am sorry for causing controversy and I have given the teacher a warning." Occidentalism posted the link to this other video, which shows a teacher walloping a student in the face.



Corporal punishment happens all the time here. I can't say I'm opposed to it most of the time. It made me uncomfortable to see it in my former hagwon, largely because I didn't think the teachers had any authority to hit students, most of whom had better English skills than their teachers (who could do little more than dictate from a grammar book and press "play"). But you can see it happening during every between-class break, and my coteachers this year have told me to hit students who are disruptive. Today for instance a student got swatted in the butt with a stick by a male homeroom teacher, and later I saw a female teacher pinning (sp?) a male student against a door with her hand on his throat, to name but two examples. The most outrageous example I've seen happened two or three weeks ago. One of the teachers brought two girls into the teachers' office and punched one of them in the head twice---closed fist, pretty hard, but not as hard as this video circulating on Youtube---for having a skirt that was a little too short. That obviously was a very extreme example, and I don't enjoy seeing things like that---in school or out---but I don't think there's any harm done by your runofthemill smack on the palm or on the backside. It sure isn't any less effective than a 30-minute detention, or whatever goes on back home.

This would be upsetting news at any time, but it seems a bit more troubling to me now, as foreign teachers are currently targets of a moral panic aimed at wiping out unqualified, dangerous, AIDS-carrying pedophiles. After seeing scenes like this, and reading about the stepfather found not guilty of molesting his 11-year-old stepdaughter (see yesterday's post), and reading about the high school teachers who took students to prostitutes while touring China, and reading about the middle school girl held prisoner in Gwangju, forced into prostitution, and raped by over 800 men (please read this if you already haven't), it makes me wonder why all the outrage is consistently aimed at foreign teachers. I've already refused the latest battery of background checks, and am prepared to continue to do so. I'm sick of people like Jason Lim who invoke every sort of stereotype to defame foreigners and hold them accountable for every shortcoming of the English edutainment business. I stand by my earlier statement that I am"shocked to see a culture that is at once so eager to learn a foreign language, yet so quick to slander its speakers."