Parents hire mobsters to solve school bullying issues for $2,000
There have been a rise in businesses claiming to solve all of your bullying/school violence problems for a sum of cash. When even the school and the police can't protect you, parents are desperately turning to these businesses and hiring scary looking men to protect their children.
On a news article about a parent explaining that the bullying against their child grew worse after they reported it to the police, several comments began sprouting suggesting that they hire an odd jobs service to resolve the matter with their own hands.
Curious to see what this was all about, we put up a post requesting for such services and received several contacts. One service explained that they had men with tattoos all over their arms. Once hired, they will wait for their child after school and accompany him home until rumors begin spreading around the school that the child has mobster members in the family.
Another service specializes in handling bullying from teens who are no longer students/have been expelled. They claimed that they will resort to violence but "hit them in a way where it won't show" so that charges can't be pressed. "Who do you think these iljins look up to the most? It's not the police, it's not the prosecutors. They look up to gangsters."
One service claimed that they've completed over 40 requests over the past 2-3 years and have never failed to resolve the matter once. As for the costs, it can run up to $5,000 for a month and around $1,500 to $1,800 for two weeks.
A member of a school violence victims committee said, "I can completely understand why parents would spend that kind of money to hire these services to protect their children. What I'm wondering is why we've let it get to this point and why we are still not doing anything about it."
Source
OP: I saw this over at Omona and wondered what _pers thought of this. As I understand, violent bullying is a huge problem Korea faces right now, and no one seems to know how to solve it. As someone who has taught Korean kids before, I have heard stories from both sides, bullies and victims. What was most shocking to me was that the bullies honestly didn't think they were bullying someone, they thought they were just joking and playing around until I pointed it out to them. I don't know if it's so deeply rooted into the culture or something else, but like everywhere else in the world it's a huge problem. Not sure of this 'solution' though, bullying a bully doesn't necessarily stop kids from learning what they are doing is wrong, but rather just scares them off one kid and they will most likely move on to another.
On a news article about a parent explaining that the bullying against their child grew worse after they reported it to the police, several comments began sprouting suggesting that they hire an odd jobs service to resolve the matter with their own hands.
Curious to see what this was all about, we put up a post requesting for such services and received several contacts. One service explained that they had men with tattoos all over their arms. Once hired, they will wait for their child after school and accompany him home until rumors begin spreading around the school that the child has mobster members in the family.
Another service specializes in handling bullying from teens who are no longer students/have been expelled. They claimed that they will resort to violence but "hit them in a way where it won't show" so that charges can't be pressed. "Who do you think these iljins look up to the most? It's not the police, it's not the prosecutors. They look up to gangsters."
One service claimed that they've completed over 40 requests over the past 2-3 years and have never failed to resolve the matter once. As for the costs, it can run up to $5,000 for a month and around $1,500 to $1,800 for two weeks.
A member of a school violence victims committee said, "I can completely understand why parents would spend that kind of money to hire these services to protect their children. What I'm wondering is why we've let it get to this point and why we are still not doing anything about it."
Source
OP: I saw this over at Omona and wondered what _pers thought of this. As I understand, violent bullying is a huge problem Korea faces right now, and no one seems to know how to solve it. As someone who has taught Korean kids before, I have heard stories from both sides, bullies and victims. What was most shocking to me was that the bullies honestly didn't think they were bullying someone, they thought they were just joking and playing around until I pointed it out to them. I don't know if it's so deeply rooted into the culture or something else, but like everywhere else in the world it's a huge problem. Not sure of this 'solution' though, bullying a bully doesn't necessarily stop kids from learning what they are doing is wrong, but rather just scares them off one kid and they will most likely move on to another.