Bullying haunts multiethnic kids
For one half-Filipino, half-Korean student, the bullying began when her classmates first threw her shoes
far away and asked her to fetch them. Years later, they started taking her to an empty classroom and
stripping her of her school uniform. Once she was naked, they scribbled over her body with markers
or beat her. Her story is not unique. Over 3,000 students from multiethnic families in Korea say they’ve
been bullied. “Come every lunch time, or cleaning hour after classes ended, they would take me to a
separate classroom and strip me of my clothes and hit me,” the 18-year-old student surnamed Lee, who
attends high school in Gangwon, told the JoongAng Ilbo. “Sometimes they drew on my body with markers
and hid my clothes from me so that I would have to go look for them and be late for class. I tried to fight
them back, but I couldn’t because they always outnumbered me.” The bullying would continue after
classes, she said. “After school, I had to pay for whatever food they wanted to eat,” she said. “So I
started working part-time at a pizza place. More than once, I thought that all of this could end if I my life
ended.” Lee said she has been harassed by classmates since she was in eighth grade. She tried to
tell her parents and the teachers about it, but gave up on the idea due to fear. “I went into my teacher’s
office to ask for help, but I saw those kids hanging about the office area,” she said. “So I gave up on
the idea. I tried to ask others around me for help, but I was scared.” She finally gathered the courage to
tell her parents about the bullying this year. The police began investigating her case from October. The
Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced in 2016 that 5 percent, or 3,090, of 61,812 students of
multiethnic backgrounds in Korea aged between seven and 24 experienced bullying and abuse at school,
according to a survey they conducted. Of them, 65.1 percent said they experienced verbal abuse, 34.1
percent said they were shut out and isolated by fellow classmates, 10.9 percent said they experienced
verbal abuse online and on social media, 10.2 percent said they experienced physical abuse and 9.5
percent said their classmates demanded money from them. The number may be higher today, as the
Ministry of Education put out its count on the number of students from multiethnic families aged between
seven and 18 to be 122,212 this year. This number was a huge jump from 46,954 students in 2012. Much
of the bullying is related to the outward appearance of students from multiethnic backgrounds. “They
called me names like Choco Pie [a chocolate-covered Korean snack] and a [racial epithet] because
of my skin color,” said an 18-year-old boy whose father is from Pakistan.
“I was bullied from fifth grade. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., all I heard from classmates at school was
abusive words and expletives.” Several students from multiethnic backgrounds have been bullied to the
point of physical injury or death in recent years. A 12-year-old boy surnamed Park, whose mother is from
Vietnam, was bullied at a school camp in Suwon, Gyeonggi, in July 2017. A fellow student sharpened
the end of a wooden toy arrow with a knife and shot it at Park’s face, and Park lost his left eye as a result.
The student who shot the arrow was expelled and moved to a different school. In November this
year, a 14-year-old boy, whose mother is Russian, was allegedly running from bullies on the rooftop
of a 15-story building when he fell from it and died. Authorities are investigating the case. But the
survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family showed that 36.1 percent of the students who
were bullied did not seek outside help. Sometimes, parents find out too late about the bullying
because they cannot spend enough time with their kids. “Both my husband and I have to be at work
all day,” said a 40-year-old woman surnamed Kim from Vietnam who became a naturalized citizen
of Korea years ago. “I cannot speak Korean well, and there were many times that I did not understand
the notices and information from my child’s school.” Due to bullying and other reasons, many
multiethnic students give up on schooling altogether. The Ministry of Education said that the number
of students with multiethnic backgrounds who stopped attending schools rose from 572 in 2013 to 1,278
last year. “Schools need to create an ecosystem where these students can talk to their teachers about
bullying and other issues,” said Seol Dong-hoon, a sociology professor at Chonbuk National University
in North Jeolla. Some experts said that Korean society must stop labeling the students as multiethnic
in the first place. “We need to teach them from when they are young that they are Koreans,” said
Jeong Ji-yoon, a professor of international relations and business at Myongji University in western Seoul.
“Many of these students know how to speak two to three languages and are extremely talented people
who can propel this society forward.” “I used to think that having more students with multiethnic
backgrounds in the school might prove problematic,” said Kim Young-mi, a teacher at Hapseong
Elementary School in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, where 26.5 percent of the students have parents
from outside of Korea. “But after spending years teaching the students, I realized that they can bring
the country forward in a more globalized world.” Some alternative schools in Korea are focused on
educating students from multiethnic families. The Korea Polytechnics Dasom High School in Incheon
is one of them. The school was established in 2012 as a boarding school for students from multiethnic
families. It currently has 128 students with families from 13 countries. “I used to be bullied at school and
didn’t have much confidence,” said Park Bo-seong, a 17-year-old student of the school. His mother
is from the Philippines. “But [after] coming to this school, I started my own YouTube channel,” he said.
“It has given me new dreams. I hope people will see that children of multiethnic families are still
Koreans.” The school graduated 44 students last year, each of whom had at least one certification in
technology, programming, electronics and other fields. Park Han-sang is one of them. He graduated
with eight certifications. He started working at the Seoul Facilities Corporation on Nov. 27 and is the
first graduate of the school to work at a public corporation. “Students come to our school feeling
rejected from society and with low self-esteem,” said Byun Gyung-hwan, a teacher at the school.
“But once they are here, they meet students whose parents are also from overseas and they bond
over the experience. They become more confident day by day. The bullying of these students at
schools will stop once their multiethnic identities become accepted as a norm.” “There are only five
schools throughout the country that focus on educating students from multiethnic families,” said
Kwon Dae-ju, principal of the school. “There should be at least one per metropolitan city.”