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The Explosion: Political and Personal Reactions to School Violence

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Bullying and Violence in South Korea

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Abstract

While Seung-min was the ‘initial spark’ that ignited the current concern about and increased sensitivity toward school violence)-related behaviour, the suicide in March 2013 of a 15-year-old high school student in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, surnamed Choi, can be seen as the ‘explosion’ which ripped into the halls of political power. Choi’s bully-suicide, said to be the 14th bullying-related death in the Daegu region since Seung-min’s suicide, sparked widespread public concern and prompted President Park Geun-hye to order emergency measures to try and quickly extinguish the flames of school violence. Like Seung-min and others, prior to jumping from the 23rd floor of his apartment building he wrote a two-page suicide note that listed the names of five classmates who had repeatedly bullied him since 2011.

2013. ‘Gyeongsan ‘School violence’ case: The suicide note of the high school student’ [경산 '학교폭력' 자살 고교생 유서 전문], Yonhap News, March 13. Retrieved March 20 from http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=001&aid=0006144949 (‘Gyeongsan ‘School violence’…’2013)

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Notes

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  2. 2.

    2013. ‘Gyeongsan ‘School violence’ case: The suicide note of the high school student,’ Yonhap News, March 13. (‘Gyeongsan ‘School violence’ case’ 2013)

  3. 3.

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  4. 4.

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  5. 5.

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  6. 6.

    Chu Chung-un. 2013. ‘Teen’s death spurs call for action against bullying,’ The Korea Herald, March 13. (Chu Chung-un. 2013)

  7. 7.

    Ibid. Chu Chung-un (2013)

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  44. 44.

    This research was presented at a conference on school violence held at the Korea Police University the author attended in 2013.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Trent Bax

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Bax, T. (2016). The Explosion: Political and Personal Reactions to School Violence. In: Bullying and Violence in South Korea. Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44612-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44612-7_5

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