いじめ告発する「学暴＃ＭｅＴｏｏ」　韓国

【釜山ＡＦＰ＝時事】靴の中に押しピンを入れられ、トイレに閉じ込められ、おなかを蹴られた。韓国で美容師として働いているピョ・イェリムさん（２６）は今、学生時代に受けたさまざまないじめについて声を上げている。（写真は韓国・釜山でＡＦＰの取材に応じた美容師のピョ・イェリムさん。学校でいじめを受けていたことを告発した）
　韓国で、「学暴＃ＭｅＴｏｏ」と呼ばれる現象が広がっている。学校で暴力を受けていたとする人々が数十年後に加害者を名指しで非難し、社会的制裁を与えるもので、動画配信大手ネットフリックスのドラマ「ザ・グローリー ～輝かしき復讐～」で世界的に有名になった。
　ピョさんは、独りで苦しんでいたとＡＦＰに話した。教師からは、いじめの加害者たちと「もっと仲良く」するようにと言われ、暴力は何年も野放しにされた。ついには進学の夢を諦め、退学して職業訓練を受けることにした。
　「誰かが助けてくれればいいのにと、ずっと思っていた」と話すピョさん。だが、手を差し伸べてくれる人は現れなかった。「（学校から）逃げ出し、必死に自分の力で生き延びた」
　■韓国の「集団的トラウマ」
　教育熱心な韓国では、学校や塾で１日１６時間勉強する子どももいる。政府はいじめの根絶策を講じているが、専門家によると、いじめは一向に減っていない。
　いじめ問題に取り組む人々は、問題は、学校現場では加害者が直ちに処罰されないことが多く、こうした犯罪には時効があるため、被害者が何年かたって訴えようとしても法律の壁に阻まれることだと指摘する。
　ピョさんは、学校で暴力を受けたことで何年も不眠症やうつに悩まされた。だが、人目を避けて生きるのをやめ、加害者を告発し、自身が受けていた仕打ちを公表することにした。その結果、加害者の１人は仕事先で解雇されたという。
　ソウル在住の弁護士で、学校での暴力事件を専門に扱うノ・ユンホ氏はＡＦＰに、「韓国で学校に通ったことのある人なら誰でも、被害者になるか、誰かがいじめられているのを目にしながら助けずに傍観者になっていた経験がある」と話す。いじめ問題は、この国が対処しなければならない「集団的トラウマ」だと指摘した。
　「学暴＃ＭｅＴｏｏ」は多くの被害者にとって、恥を克服し、いじめられたのは「自分に落ち度があるせい」ではないという気付きを得るのに役立っていると付け加えた。
　■いじめた側が名誉毀損で訴えることも
　しかし、未成年の時に犯した罪を大人になってから法的に罰することは、現実的には非常に大きな問題があるとノ氏は話す。１０代の時の犯罪で、いつまでも前科を問われる可能性があるためだ。
　被害者を応援する動きは世間で広がったが、加害者への処罰の妥当性を疑問視する向きもある。
　後からこうした処分を下すより、黙殺することが多い学校と協力し、いじめの発生時に確実に対処するほうがはるかに良いと専門家は指摘する。
　一方、ピョさんは「名誉毀損（きそん）法が改正されない限り、いじめた側が裁判を切り札にして被害者を脅すことができる」と話した。
　実名で声を上げられないのは、まさにこうした理由からだとピョさんは言う。「（現行の）名誉毀損法がなくなれば、数え切れないほどの被害者が声を上げ始めるだろう」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/06/20-17:11）

Pins hidden in her shoes, head forced down a toilet, kicked in the stomach: Korean hairdresser Pyo Ye-rim suffered a litany of abuse from school bullies, but now she's speaking out.
The 26-year-old is part of a phenomenon sweeping South Korea known as Hakpok #MeToo, where people who were bullied publicly name and shame the perpetrators of school violence -- hakpok in Korean -- decades after the alleged crimes.
Made famous globally by Netflix's gory revenge series The Glory, the movement has ensnared everyone from K-pop stars to baseball players, and accusations -- often anonymous -- can be career-ending, with widespread public sympathy for victims.
As a schoolgirl, Pyo says she suffered alone. Teachers told her to be friendlier to her bullies and the abuse went unchecked for years, eventually forcing her to give up her dreams of higher education and quit school for vocational training.
There was only one thing I wished for. I wished someone could help me, she told AFP, adding that no one came to her aid and eventually she escaped and struggled to survive on my own.
In education-obsessed South Korea, where children can spend up to 16 hours a day studying at schools and in private academies, bullying is widespread, experts say, despite official efforts to stamp it out.
The problem, activists say, is that bullying often goes unpunished in real-time at schools, and the statute of limitations on such crimes makes it hard for victims to bring charges years later.
Pyo said she suffered from years of insomnia and depression as a result of her treatment at school, before deciding to stop hiding and go public with her accusations -- resulting in one of her bullies being fired from their job.
But Pyo is lobbying for real legal change, demanding South Korea suspend the statute of limitations affecting school violence and change the defamation law to better protect victims.
- Hakpok #MeToo -
Netflix's The Glory -- which follows a woman's meticulously planned revenge scheme after suffering years of brutal abuse from high school bullies -- helped amplify South Korea's national discussion about bullying.
In an ironic sign of how pervasive the issue is, after the show became a hit, the director Ahn Gil-ho was himself accused of teenage bullying and forced to apologise.
Even South Korea's presidential office was recently forced to withdraw a top police appointment after it emerged the candidate's son had bullied classmates, sparking public backlash.
School violence is endemic in South Korean schools, Noh Yoon-ho, a Seoul-based attorney who specialises in bullying cases told AFP, adding it is a collective trauma the country needs to process.
Any South Korean who has gone to school has been a victim or witnessed other students being bullied and not helped -- we all have memories of this, Noh said.
The Hakpok #MeToo movement has helped many victims to shed the shame of their experience, and realise they were not bullied because they were lacking something, she added.
But the problem is that there is still no system in place at school level where victims can approach without hesitation for an immediate and adequate response when incidents occur, Jihoon Kim, a criminology professor who has researched bullying in South Korea, told AFP.
- Punish the bullies? -
Pyo and other victims say South Korea should remove the statute of limitations on school violence so bullies can be held accountable even decades later.
But there are huge practical issues with legally punishing adults for crimes committed as a juvenile, Noh said, which could give people lasting criminal records for teenage misdeeds.
Pyo is also calling for an overhaul of South Korea's criminal defamation laws, which currently allow bullies to sue their accusers for damages and win -- even if their victims are telling the truth.
Most accusations are anonymous but have resulted in bullies being fired or, in the case of one of South Korea's most successful baseball players, excluded from the national team.
Despite widespread public support for victims, some have questioned the fairness of such punishments.
It would be far better to work with schools -- where such crimes have typically been ignored -- to ensure that bullying is addressed as it happens, experts say.
Unless this is done, the public naming and shaming will continue.
It's gotten this bad because no victims have done it before now, said Pyo, adding that unless the defamation law changes, bullies can still threaten victims with lawsuits.
This is why no one is able to talk, except anonymously, she said. If this law disappears, countless victims will start speaking out.