The Supreme Court has ruled that the actions of school staff who attempted to unlawfully confirm whether a former principal and teacher, who were public interest whistleblowers, were under investigation or involved in misconduct constitute grounds for disciplinary action.
On the 15th, according to the legal community, the Supreme Court’s First Division (Presiding Justice Shin Suk-hee) recently overturned a lower court ruling that had favored the plaintiffs—a school foundation operating Seorabeol Middle and High School, its chairman, and others—in their lawsuit to cancel an institutional warning disposition issued by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The case was remanded to the Seoul High Court.
In 2020, the vice principal of Seorabeol High School, the acting administrative director, and a clerk sent official requests titled “Request for Cooperation in Investigating Alleged Wrongdoing” to the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office, Seoul Nowon Police Station, and the Board of Audit and Inspection, inquiring whether investigations or probes were being conducted into the former principal and Teacher A, a public interest whistleblower. They received responses stating “no such cases existed.” Later, upon discovering this, Teacher A filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, alleging that the vice principal and others had requested and obtained investigation results from law enforcement agencies regarding the whistleblowers and that the...
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