A court ruled that expulsion from a high school student who assaulted his juniors and filmed their genitals so that he could not report them was appropriate.
The first administrative division of the Chuncheon Trial of the Seoul High Court (Judge Park Jae-woo) announced today (28th) that the plaintiff lost the same as the original trial court in the appeals court for the cancellation of the expulsion disposition filed by Mr. A against the school principal.
On December 7, 2019, when he was a third-year high school student in Tokyo, Mr. A locked up three first-year juniors in his home for not feeling well, and assaulted them, such as hitting them with their hands and stepping on them with their feet.
After the assault, they forcibly removed the victims' pants and panties to keep their mouth shut, took pictures of their genitals, and threatened to report them to the police or spread the photos if they told others.
As a result of this, the school's self-government committee for measures against school violence decided to expel Mr. A on the 23rd of the same month, and the school issued the expulsion disposition.
A was dissatisfied with the disposition and applied for an administrative appeal, but it was dismissed, and in the end, an administrative lawsuit was filed against the school.
Mr. A argued that the expulsion was too heavy and illegal, considering the fact that he deeply reflected on his mistakes, that he was active as an athlete while attending school, that he raised the honor of the school, and that he had already been punished in a criminal case.
The Gangneung Branch of the Chuncheon District Court in charge of the first trial rejected Mr. A's claim, saying, "It cannot be said that the disadvantage that the plaintiff will suffer from the disposition of this case is significantly greater than the public purpose that the defendant intends to achieve."
Even considering that Mr. A was a minor at the time of the offense, considering that the degree or quality of the offense was not very good, and the psychological shock or pain suffered by the victim students would have been great, it was reasonable to view expulsion as an effective and appropriate disciplinary measure.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Mr. A appealed, saying, "Considering that graduation was only about 10 days away and that we reached an agreement with the victims after expulsion, the disposition was illegal", but the judgment was not overturned.
The appellate court dismissed Mr. A's appeal, saying, "It was not until the time of the judgment of the criminal case that an agreement was reached, and whether the administrative disposition was illegal should be judged on the basis of the facts at the time of the disposition."
Considering that the academic calendar is almost complete by the time of the disposition, and reasonable disciplinary effects such as suspension of attendance, class change, and transfer are not likely to be achieved, the disposition of expulsion may be deviating from discretion only because there are only 10 days left to graduate The court decided that it was difficult to see that it was abused.