A teacher who could not stand by while students suffered sexual violence found the courage to report it. The signs of harm were fortunately confirmed, but the school notified the teacher of a transfer (a move to another school). To return to school, the teacher began a solo protest.

This is what Ji Hye-bok, a teacher at a middle school in Seoul, experienced over the past three years. After a long fight, she won a ruling on the 29th of last month canceling the transfer. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also decided not to appeal. Why was the teacher who stepped up to protect students even dismissed? Today Dot, Line, Plane will lay it out.

In a lawsuit filed in June 2024 against the Seoul Jungbu District Office of Education to confirm the nullity of her transfer, Ji Hye-bok won on the 29th of last month. Ji argued that the transfer was a disadvantageous disposition in retaliation for a public-interest report. The court stated, “Ji’s report in this case constitutes a public-interest report, Ji qualifies as a public-interest whistleblower, and the disposition (transfer) is a disadvantageous disposition contrary to the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act,” and added, “We cancel the transfer disposition.” Her public-interest report and her status as a whistleblower were recognized.

Right after the ruling, on the 30th of last month the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it would not appeal. Jeong Geun-sik, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said, “We take the purport of this ruling seriously and will devote efforts to improving systems to protect public-interest whistleblowers,” and, “We will work closely and make active efforts so that Teacher Ji Hye-bok can restore her rights and status and meet students again as soon as possible.”

The issue began with a sexual harassment case involving male students at a middle school in Seoul. Serving then as head of the school’s counseling department, Ji Hye-bok heard in May 2023 that many female students had been subjected to ongoing sexual harassment. The reports described appearance-based harassment and unwanted touching that had continued for a long time. Ji conducted an anonymous survey, and 29 of 31 female students responded that they had witnessed or experienced verbal sexual harassment and similar acts.

However, while the school implemented measures such as telling male students not to talk to female students, information about some victims was exposed. According to Ji, perpetrators hunted down victims and moved in groups from class to class, kicking desks or making box cutter sounds to threaten them. Online harassment also occurred.

As secondary harm intensified, Ji reported the case in June 2023 to the Student Human Rights Education Center of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. In December 2023, the center stated, “Evidence of secondary harm has been confirmed,” and recommended six measures. They included implementing recovery programs for victims, providing sex education to students and staff, an apology and a commitment to prevent recurrence from school administrators, and prevention of similar incidents.

Nevertheless, in February 2024 the school instead sent Ji to another school. It said it had decided to reduce the quota of teachers in a particular subject and selected transferees in order of arrival. Ji and civil society groups argued this was retaliatory personnel action for her public-interest report on the sexual violence case.

At that time the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also did not recognize Ji as a public-interest whistleblower. In March 2024 it sent an official letter to Ji, who was demanding withdrawal of the transfer, stating that “it is difficult to conclude that you are a public-interest whistleblower.” The office judged, based on the Anti-Corruption Act rather than the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act, that it was difficult to consider Ji a whistleblower. The court in this ruling, however, applied the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act and viewed the transfer as a disadvantageous disposition.

In response, Ji refused to report to work and staged a one-person protest to appeal the unfairness. The school dismissed her, saying the absence was unauthorized. It then took two years for a ruling to come. Civic groups formed a joint countermeasures committee to support Ji’s protest, and after the 12·3 illegal martial law incident in 2024 she also received support and encouragement from so-called ‘hornet comrades’citizens who quickly dash to protest sites like the hornet uncle who appeared on a variety sho. Victims and parents submitted petitions to the court to help Ji.

This case leaves both hope and limits in terms of protecting public-interest whistleblowers. After the ruling, Ji said in front of the courtroom, “I want teachers who, like me, raised issues at school, suffered, and left to be fully protected,” and, “I hope today’s ruling gives them courage.” As she said, this decision confirmed that legitimate public-interest reports are protected by law.

The problem is that Ji had to raise her voice on cold streets for more than two years before she was recognized as a whistleblower. In an interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun last March, she dwelled on the words “please win” that hornet comrades told her while sharing their own experiences of harm as students. Thinking of the students victimized by sexual violence, she decided she could not give up. Without the solidarity and support of civil society, it might not have been possible.

The reason Ji had to wage such a hard fight is that right after a public-interest report she found herself in a blind spot of the law. The Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act provides for prison terms of up to three years for those who disadvantage whistleblowers. Yet, as in the case of Ji, once transfer or dismissal is decided, a reporting teacher has no choice but to endure harm until recognized as a whistleblower. Even when whistleblowers apply for protective measures, the acceptance rate at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission over the past five years has been 7.3%.

Voices are therefore calling for closing the legal blind spot and providing broader protective measures to reporters. Participation Solidarity submitted a petition last November to the National Assembly to revise the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act and related laws. The draft would expand the scope of protection for whistleblowers to cover the reporting preparation stage and create a system that allows disadvantage procedures to be temporarily suspended by a decision of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.

Resolving the essence of the case, sexual violence in schools, also remains a task. Ji said, “Before School MeToo, sexual violence was explicit; now it has merely gone into hiding,” and, “When a teacher steps up to resolve a sexual violence case, that teacher becomes isolated and faces blame and attacks from offending students, parents, and fellow teachers.” Analyses that anti-feminism and far-right sentiment have intensified among teenagers in recent years add to the concern.

Lee Ju-Young, an activist with the studentelder solidarity group ‘Gasi’ at Sungkonghoe University, argued in a column that “canceling the unfair transfer of Teacher Ji Hye-bok and resolving sexual violence at the school is the first step toward proper sex education.” This is not merely a matter of what students see and learn but a question about the basic philosophy of sex education, respect for others. Did education authorities and the school truly respect the teacher who stepped forward to protect students in the first place? It is time to answer that question.

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