~~ In Memoriam ~~

Of a life lost. Taken. Much too soon.


Without going into details that will actually turn this into the tarnishing of an already horrible situation, this is my personal solution.



I have been working as an English teacher in Korea for almost 10 months now. I've seen a lot. Some of it good, and some bad. I've learned a lot. About myself, and about the place I'm living. I've been PUT IN my place a lot. I have restrictions here I never imagined I'd face. I have disagreed with many things. But, after being shot down time after time I decided that the best way to get through it was just to let things go, even when I didn't necessarily agree with them. On this particular occasion I cannot just let it go...

Friday, one of my students was brutally murdered - beaten to death - by his father. The man he left our Center with only 15 minutes before it happened. Fifteen minutes after coming into my classroom and saying 'Goodbye teacher', something he had never done before.

And I want to know - where is the line? When does the line between respecting a culture and standing up for wrongdoing begin to blur?

We're supposed to 'keep quiet'. Tell the students he moved to another school. But the whispers of the truth have already started. The students know something... And they have no more an outlet for dealing with these wrongs than I. I am not Korean. I cannot bury this and let it fester. Things like that have a way of reappearing - and it usually isn't pleasant.

As of now, there is to be no funeral. No memorial for a boy of 8 whose life was cut short. How do you justify that? And how am I to deal with the horrible bruise which I enquired about, but was brushed off - by his homeroom teacher! - like it didn't matter. Someone should have made it matter. Someone should have asked the questions a language barrier prevented me from asking. And someone should have raised the alarm.

I've lost all respect for our principle. He's asked everyone to keep their mouths shut so that the school doesn't get into trouble. And I'll never be able to look my manager in the eye again as she was his homeroom teacher & refuses to come forward with any information she has, even though she failed this boy once already.

It is going to take a long time to come to terms with this. And how am I supposed to deal with the fact that the Korean reaction to a little boys murder is silence.