On February 23, a certain group of students sexualized a specific job sector in a Kakao group chat of School of Media and Communication students. Some of the people who witnessed the tasteless back and forth took issue with the comments and expressed discomfort. Two students, known only as C and D subsequently insulted and derided those who spoke up against their misconduct in their private Kakao group chat. Thus, on March 12 the School of Media and Communication 2018 Spring Semester Committee for Human Rights Violation decided to request that C issue a private apology and memorandum and D post a public anonymous apology to the victims of derision.

 

The Committee clearly reprimanded the two students’ actions, warning them that such behaviour prevents active discussion of various human rights issues from taking place and dissuade other students from voicing their opinions..

 

To prevent similar cases from happening, the Committee agreed to post material meant to stave off further incidents in the group chat in question. Furthermore, they promised to make additional bylaws related to sexual malfeasance and notify it to the students before events that occur within the major, making sure that they were well informed before any such events.

 

Kim Yerin (‘17, School of Media and Communication), the Deputy Head of the Education Human Rights Council of the Media and Communication Student Union, said, “It was not possible to publicly reveal the offenders’ identities due to legal problems.” Regarding the incident itself, she added, “It is truly a shame that such an incident occurred even when the general atmosphere of the School of Media and Communications was geared toward human rights protection.” She was emphatic that “students, both individually and as a whole, must study human rights, for it became clear through this incident that individual attitude and knowledge regarding the issue is far from adequate.”