A teacher who was released from his position after sending a video of an underwear fashion show to a female high school student on a mobile phone filed an administrative lawsuit against the superintendent of education and won.
Administrative departments 1-3 of the Incheon District Court announced that the plaintiff won the case in a lawsuit filed by teacher A against the superintendent of Incheon City to cancel the disposition of dismissal from his position.
In December 2021, the court canceled the disposition of dismissal received by Mr. A, and ordered the superintendent of Incheon City to bear all the costs of the lawsuit.
In November 2021, Mr. A sent a video link via KakaoTalk to her high school student student B.
This 4-minute video features female models performing a fashion show wearing underwear-oriented outfits while world-renowned pop singer Rihanna sings.
A month later, Ms. B sued A for obscenity using communication media under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, etc., and the police immediately launched an investigation.
Ms. B said, "It is true that (the teacher) asked the teacher to send a video of the singer's song, but she never asked for a video of an underwear fashion show." stated
The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education, which was notified of the start of the investigation by the police, ordered A to be removed from his position in accordance with the Education Public Officials Act.
In the meantime, the police sent it to the prosecution as a child protection case, considering that it was difficult to apply the charge of obscenity using communication media to Mr. A, but that he was suspected of violating the Child Welfare Act.
However, the prosecution said, "The degree of exposure of the underwear models in the video was not severe and did not highlight specific body parts."
In June of last year, Mr. A filed an administrative lawsuit against the superintendent of education in Incheon, who had been removed from office after being acquitted due to insufficient evidence by the prosecution.
At the trial, he argued, "I did not make any effort to secure objective data, and I was removed from my position simply by the fact that a (police) investigation had begun."
The court also judged that it was difficult to recognize that Mr. A's misconduct was serious and it was difficult to expect normal business performance at the time of the disposition of dismissal.
The judge explained, "The video has 49 million views on YouTube and can be easily searched for. It does not appear to be a video restricted to minors."
They added, "This video is a combination of a singer's performance and a fashion show, so it does not fall under pornography." "Disposition of removal from position without cause is illegal and should be canceled."
(Photo = Provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)