Controversy: Male Student in Daewon Foreign Language High School Takes “Molka” of Female Classmate | Written 2018-12-03

http://m.kmib.co.kr/view.asp?arcid=0924042168

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and Gwangjin Police Station, on October 4th, A, a 3rd-year in Daewon Foreign Language High School, reported Student B of illicit photographing to the police. A told the police that “B took a picture of the inside of her skirt” and B admitted this. A stated that she suspected B of taking photographs of her by a similar tactic in the past and demanded an apology, and reported to the police when B refused.

This is the story of someone not involved. This is not the testimony of a witness. This is how someone who has been eating pancakes with her high school friends on the day the article was published has to say about what happened in her high school. This is her obligation as a graduate of the said high school to at least not forget.

As she does not know the victim or the perpetrator in person, she will not specify what the “similar tactic” of B was, although she has heard much hearsay from her friends, who heard about the incident from her underclassmen or her brother. However, she feels it is necessary to reveal what she heard about the incident- that A demanded an apology via the class’s chatroom and B conceded in front of the whole class. Which means every single person of the class inevitably knew what happened. But A suspected that the photo she caught B taking wasn’t the only photo of her.

Daewon Foreign Language High School suspended B’s attendance for 4 days and referred the incident to the School Violence Countermeasures Committee (SVCC) and the SVCC requested 20 hours of social service and completion of special education to the school. However, the school let B fulfill his hours of social service after his CSAT. Moreover, during his suspension, the school let him study in a study room made for him in the 2nd-grade staffroom. After the suspension, B continued to attend school and take classes as usual.

Posters were torn down. Students were silenced. When the girls talked about the incident in their classroom a teacher warned that they could be sued for defamation. Graduates shared links of the article in their social media, in hopes that the incident would be known and criticized. All this while the perpetrator was safely studying in a space provided just for him.

Among the students, suspicions have been raised that the school broke the rules to B’s benefit. According to the Act on Prevention and Countermeasures against School Violence, the school should carry out the measures imposed by the SVCC within 14 days. If the student refuses or neglects to do so, the punishment could be imposed again. “Considering that B is a CSAT taker, the SVCC told the school to carry out the punishment after the CSAT,” Daewon’s school official explained.

While possibilities that there might be more than one victim has been raised, no school-level research has been conducted. “There are rumors that someone saw more than 300 photos of this kind in B’s Cloud,” one student commented.The school has an obligation to report in case of sexual crimes against students, but this was also not followed. According to the Act on Prevention and Countermeasures against School Violence, the school must report to an investigative institution even when a third party already reported. A school official stated, “As the student already reported the case, we did not see anything else to do.”

They say

that B might have a thousand photographs of his peers which the police left untouched

that B might have installed a camera in the female lavatory(that the teachers even use)

that the whole class of male students might have been complicit in distributing these photographs, and B is just unluckily caught

that my homeroom teacher blocked the police from investigating by lying that they’re supposed to go to the 2nd grade staffroom

that the 3rd grade teachers rounded A up and asked her why she reported to the police in the first place

The memory is already a year old and it’s blurring.

How do I differentiate truth and fiction again?

The police closed the case without charging because the victim did not want any punishment. A police official stated, “We considered the fact that the victim is a minor and is about to take the CSAT. There were no reports or accusations afterward.” The incident happened right after September 27th, when Min Gap Ryong, Chief of the National Police Agency, declared take strict measures against “molka” (illicit photographing) crimes.

Working notes: I did not expect myself to be exhausted right after translating the article, but I was. There were many articles on the same incident, but I decided to choose the one I saw with my friends that day. I’m still worried that my translation does not sound formal enough. I first wanted to divide the text vertically and add my comments right next to the paragraphs of the article, but I could not figure out how to do this. So I decided to divide the text horizontally and add the comments.