The One Strike Out Policy is a system stating that any teacher who commits a sex crime on the students will be immediately kicked out of school. Although this policy should have been practiced earlier, it was just this summer that the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) actually announced the outset of the policy. This policy did its first deed when a physical education teacher was kicked out of school for sexually harassing a high school student on August 12. With this event, the SMOE showed pride in making a bright start in making a sex-crime-free school.

 

However, taking a deeper look into this event, the dark side of the One Strike Out Policy can be seen. It was not the student that accused the teacher of the harassment but it was rather the teacher himself who confessed to his crime after the student’s homeroom teacher questioned her student’s sudden change in mood after the harassment. Therefore, it was not that the student felt safe about reporting the sex crime but it was the keen homeroom teacher that prevented the school from experiencing further crime. When looking at this event, it is indeed evident that a well-established sex crime report system does not exist and therefore the students are not yet free from sex crime even with the One Strike Out Policy.

 

Accordingly, a proper report system would be definitely needed to assist the execution of the One Strike Out Policy. The fear that reporting the teachers of their crimes might create harsh rumors prevents the students from actually speaking out on the crime. Therefore, a report system that the students can feel safe in using should be well-established and promoted. In addition, since each school has a police officer in charge that is able to investigate without lawsuit, schools should teach the students about this way of reporting while receiving sex education.

 

However, it is not only the problem of the reporting system that should be fixed but also the crime processing system that should be perfectly arranged. Seeing the example above, and how a sex crime auditor also committed sexual harassment during the auditing process, processing of sexual harassment in schools definitely has a long way to go. A processing system that does not go through the principals or the officials of the schools should be built, and the statute of limitations on sex crimes should be extended from the current three years to punish crimes from even a long time ago.

 

In the end, no solution would completely exterminate sex crimes in school, and no crime can be perfectly punished. However, through the establishment of a proper report and processing system, the One Strike Out Policy would be definitely a good start in making a safer school environment for the students. Although this newly set out policy still has a long way to go, if the One Strike Out Policy does indeed chase away the criminals hiding inside the system of the schools, the students could be free to set out their dreams in the schools without fear of harming their souls.