By Lee Han-soo
Seoul Administrative Court supported an elementary school's actions against a male student for asking a female classmate to show her genital Monday.
The first grade boy, whose name and school's location were withheld, took his classmate to a boys' restroom last May. He pulled his pants down and showed her his genitals, while asking her to do the same.
The school's Commission on the Prevention of School Violence ordered the boy to apologize in writing, barred him from interacting with the girl and ordered him and his parents to take a course on sexual ethics and sensitivity.
The commission ordered that records of these measures be kept two years after the boy graduated.
However, the boy's parents filed a lawsuit to cancel the measures, saying they were unfair.
They claimed the case should not be regarded as a sexual assault on the grounds that the girl showed her genitals voluntarily and that a six-year-old girl had no awareness of sex in general so was unlikely to feel sexual shame.
The court rejected the request.
"The boy's behavior is considered as school violence," the court in its ruling statement. "It is also necessary for students who are in the process of forming their personality to recognize their errors and ask for forgiveness."
The court also backed the school's measures, saying it was correct to take decisive and strict action against school violence.
Seoul Administrative Court supported an elementary school's actions against a male student for asking a female classmate to show her genital Monday.
The first grade boy, whose name and school's location were withheld, took his classmate to a boys' restroom last May. He pulled his pants down and showed her his genitals, while asking her to do the same.
The school's Commission on the Prevention of School Violence ordered the boy to apologize in writing, barred him from interacting with the girl and ordered him and his parents to take a course on sexual ethics and sensitivity.
The commission ordered that records of these measures be kept two years after the boy graduated.
However, the boy's parents filed a lawsuit to cancel the measures, saying they were unfair.
They claimed the case should not be regarded as a sexual assault on the grounds that the girl showed her genitals voluntarily and that a six-year-old girl had no awareness of sex in general so was unlikely to feel sexual shame.
The court rejected the request.
"The boy's behavior is considered as school violence," the court in its ruling statement. "It is also necessary for students who are in the process of forming their personality to recognize their errors and ask for forgiveness."
The court also backed the school's measures, saying it was correct to take decisive and strict action against school violence.
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