Standing Up in Class, Shouting "Martial Law Has Been Declared"... "Tank Day Fighting"—Hate Speech Penetrates the Classroom

9 Out of 10 Teachers Have Encountered Hate and Ridicule in the Classroom
94% of Teachers Cite "Online Hate Content" as the Cause
Half of Students Have Experienced "Mocking Content" About Appearance or Region on YouTube and Social Media
55%

"After the 'Tank Day incident,' children shout 'Tank Day Fighting' during class."

"Suddenly, during class, students stand up and declare, 'Martial law has been declared.'"

It has been revealed that 9 out of 10 teachers have witnessed students expressing hate, discrimination, distortion of history, or denial of democracy in schools. Students are regularly exposed to derogatory language targeting not only regions but also appearance, grades, and speech on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Without critical examination, these expressions are accepted and then spill over and spread within the classroom.

The controversy over the Paichai High School baseball team ridiculing the May 18 Democratization Movement demonstrates that this is not an isolated incident of individual misconduct, but rather a structural problem, with the culture of online hate and mockery seeping into schools.

While students know that they should stop hate and discrimination that insult and hurt others, they say they are not learning this properly at school or in society. Students are also calling for adults to change and are demanding clear explanations about the true meaning behind hate speech and historical distortion.

"Tank Day Fighting"... Hate Speech Spreads to the Classroom

On July 7, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union announced the results of a survey that contained these findings.

In the “Survey on Youth Perspectives on Online Expressions and School Life” and a separate teacher survey, conducted from July 2 to 6 among 1,109 elementary, middle, and high school teachers and 1,636 students from sixth grade in elementary school to high school, 89.3% of teachers said they had encountered hate, discrimination, or historical distortion in student comments, assignments, or presentations over the past year. In particular, middle school teachers reported the highest rate of such experiences at 92.7%.

The most common setting for students to use such expressions was in conversations with peers during break times (77.3%). This suggests that such language has become deeply embedded in everyday peer communication. Such expressions also frequently appeared during class discussions (52.6%) and in assignments or presentations (20.8%), indicating that hate speech circulated online is being directly brought into the classroom environment.

It appears that students are primarily exposed to these expressions online.

Spreading through YouTube and Social Media... Half of Students Encounter Mockery Content

When asked what types of expressions or content they had encountered on YouTube, social networking services (SNS), online communities, game chats, or group chats in the past year, the most common response (53.5%) was "expressions mocking appearance, grades, family background, region, or speech." This was followed by content mocking the death, accidents, or tragedies of politicians or celebrities (51.2%), expressions disparaging specific regions (47.7%), content ridiculing historical events or victims (46.8%), and political or social fake news and conspiracy theories (45.3%).

This shows that the problem is not limited to certain expressions consumed in far-right online communities. Instead, mockery, hate, and the trivialization of tragedy have become widespread across the entire online environment for teenagers.

The most common channels through which students encountered such content were YouTube (53.1%) and Instagram (51.6%). This was followed by TikTok (33.6%), conversations with school friends (19.9%), game chats (13.7%), and X (formerly Twitter, 13.8%). This demonstrates that expressions of hate and mockery consumed online are finding their way into peer relationships and conversations within schools.

Students are aware that mocking and belittling others is wrong, but many do not know exactly which online expressions are problematic, highlighting the need for proper education on the matter.

Not Only Online Hate Content—'Politics and the Media' Also at Fault... Time to End the "Language of Mockery"

Regarding the recent Paichai High School incident, 80.6% of students said that "expressions mocking others, regions, or historical suffering are problematic." In addition, 83.7% responded that the public debate sparked by this incident either reinforced their belief that it was problematic or made them more aware of the seriousness of the issue.

As for solutions to prevent recurrence, the most common response was "education explaining why such expressions are problematic" (40.8%), surpassing "punishment matching the severity of the wrongdoing" (33.2%). Other responses included "preventing the spread of hate and mockery content online" (32.4%) and "providing opportunities for those who made mistakes to apologize and reflect" (28.9%).

Teachers saw this issue as a structural problem rather than simply an individual’s misbehavior. A total of 88.4% of respondents viewed the Paichai High School incident as "the result of online hate culture entering schools, not merely an individual student’s deviation."

As for the causes, 94% cited "the spread of online hate content and community culture," while 74.4% pointed to "the language of hate and mockery used by politicians and the media."

Difficulties in guidance were also reported. Teachers said that when they tried to address hate speech with students, the most common responses were, "It was just a joke" (56.0%) or "I just copied what other kids said" (55.5%). Some teachers (32.1%) reported that students continued to use the same expressions even after being instructed, while cases in which students researched information themselves or responded with genuine apologies and reflection were extremely rare (1.8%).

Students Who Said "It Was Just a Joke"... Education Led to Change in Some Cases: "Education Over Punishment"

However, among the 145 respondents who reported positive effects from education, improvements were attributed to measures such as ▲education explaining the origins and meanings of expressions, ▲history and human rights education combined with field trips, ▲dialogue encouraging self-reflection and building trust between teachers and students, and ▲school-wide joint responses.

Some teachers shared, "After explaining the seriousness of terms originating from Ilbe, the students stopped using them, saying they hadn't realized their implications." "Over the course of a year, as I presented objective information in class, students’ far-right inclinations subsided." "Punishment was ineffective, but after field trips to sites related to the May 18 Democratization Movement and the Sewol Ferry disaster, the children changed significantly."

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The solutions students preferred were also closer to education than punishment.

The most common response (55.3%) was that "learning about hate speech and historical distortion properly at school" is necessary, followed by "classes reflecting on why actual cases are problematic" (42.9%), "clear school action against serious hate or discriminatory behavior" (35.0%), and "systems to prevent platforms like YouTube and social media from continuously recommending hate content" (32.2%).

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union stated, "The Paichai High School incident is not an issue limited to a specific school but an example of how online hate speech is entering school culture," adding, "School education, media literacy, the social responsibility of platforms, and improvements to the online content environment must be promoted together."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.