By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Police are investigating a complaint that a hagwon instructor hit a middle school student in the face causing serious injury that required surgery.
According to police in Seoul, a complaint was filed that the 20-something teacher at a cram school hit the 15-year-old boy in the face with his clenched fist several times around 9:40 p.m. March 13. The student suffered fractures to his maxillary and orbital bones.
The boy's father claimed that the boy was standing outside a classroom as punishment for not solving a math question, and that the instructor, presumably displeased with his chewing gum, punched him.
``My son had to undergo surgery, having 16 metal screws put into his face. But the hagwon did not pay even the surgery fee, saying it does not have any money. I'd like to let people know how corporal punishment is rampant at private institutes,'' the father said.
A director of the hagwon said that the teacher hit the boy only once and that he did so because while he was scolding the student for not taking the punishment seriously, the boy grabbed him by the collar.
``We fired the teacher. There may be misunderstanding about the money, as we proposed to the father that we pay the whole cost of treatment and tuition until the student enters college,'' he said.