School violence is nothing new and therefore, adults are prone to overlooking the serious consequences of it. So, bullying in schools continues to occur, much to our shame.
On Sunday, a 15-year-old high school freshman jumped to his death from the 23rd floor of the apartment building where he lived in the southeastern city of Gyeongsan. A two-page suicide note left by the student, surnamed Choi, recounted that he had been constantly bullied by five peers since 2011. It turned out that the five were classmates of his from middle school and that two of them were attending the same high school.
It's heartbreaking to think that Choi took his own life after enduring such continuous pain and despair. All of us should be blamed for a string of student suicides that have arisen from violence in schools and all measures available must be taken to stop further tragedies like this.
Since a 13-year-old victim of bullying committed suicide in Daegu in December 2011, the government has implemented a package of measures to uproot school violence, including an expanded installation of surveillance cameras and harsher penalties against students found to be involved in school bullying. But the latest incident shows that these measures have been almost futile.
Most deplorable is that the installed CCTVs have been useless in spotting the scenes of bullying because of their blind spots and substandard picture quality, as the student pinpointed in his suicide note. Once again, our society must be ashamed for beating around the bush and being content with the mere fact that more surveillance cameras have been installed in schools.
It's also awful that the school police system, introduced in early 2012 as part of the government's anti-school violence measures, has been almost ineffective in preventing bullying. In short, there has been much talk about the desperate need to uproot violence but there have not been viable measures to rescue those students who felt there was no one they could ask for help.
President Park Geun-hye called for fundamental solutions to end school violence Tuesday, saying, ''How can the people be happy when they shudder at social ills?'' But rooting out violence at school is easier said than done.
Intense competition between classmates to do well at school and its resultant stress lurk in the lingering school violence. In this regard, schools need to step up education on anti-violence. What's clear is that schools, households and students must join forces to put an end to this vicious circle of violence and suicides, given that the reasons for unending bullying at school are deep-seated and diverse.
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DAILY FORTUNE - SEPTEMBER 19, 2017 
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