Danwon High School

Danwon High School in February 2016

Danwon High School (Korean: 단원고등학교; Hanja: 檀園高等學校) is a coeducational high school located in Danwon District, Ansan, South Korea. It is a state school, being under the authority of Gyeonggi Province's Office of Education.

The school was founded in 2005. In cooperation with The Borderless Village, a non-governmental organization, it established a multiculturalism program in 2006 and 2007. Its motto is "self-realization." As of May 2013, there were 1542 pupils at the school.

MV Sewol tragedy

Memorials for the victims of the sinking of the MV Sewol in Danwon High School

On 16 April 2014, a ferry carrying 325 of the school's second-year class and a dozen of its teachers capsized en route from Incheon towards Jeju Island resulting in many fatalities and injuries.

The school was closed until 24 April when it opened only for the 75 surviving juniors; yellow ribbons were tied to the school's gate, and a shrine of flowers and hundreds of notes to the dead adorned the school's entrance. A makeshift memorial was established in a nearby basketball gymnasium, with a wall of flowers and dozens of photos of the dead and missing.

The school's vice principal, Kang Min-kyu, who had been rescued from the ferry, died by suicide a few days after the disaster.

The classrooms used by the second-year students at the time of the disaster had been preserved as a "Memorial Classrooms," but when new students were assigned to the school in 2016, there was a shortage of classrooms. It was argued that the “Memorial Classroom” should be returned to the current students to resolve the shortage and alleviate the psychological burden on them. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education proposed to the bereaved families that it would relocate the 10 Memory Classrooms to a site in front of the school to create a facility tentatively named the "April 16 Democratic Citizenship Education Center", but the plan was scrapped due to opposition from relevant groups, prompting some parents to disrupt new student orientations and declare that they would block all school events and access to the school until the Memory Classrooms were returned.

Sister schools

References

  1. ↑ "Danwon High School". Doopedia. Archived from the original on 16 April 2023.
  2. ↑ 학교연혁. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  3. ↑ 원곡동서 '미션' 수행 "다문화가 쏙쏙". The Hankyoreh. 17 July 2007. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Mullen, Jethro; Kwon, Judy (25 April 2014). "Memories and traces of students lost in South Korean ferry disaster". CNN. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "South Korea ferry disaster: rescued teacher found dead". The Guardian. 18 April 2014. Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  6. ↑ 경태영, 경태영 (2 February 2016). "세월호 참사 안산 단원고 '기억교실' 어쩌나?" [What will happen to Danwon High's 'memory classrooms' from the Sewol ferry disaster?]. 경향신문. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  7. ↑ 김경태, 김경태 (2 February 2016). "신입생 들어왔는데 공부할 교실 없는 단원고" [No classrooms for new students at Danwon High]. 연합뉴스. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  8. ↑ 남경현, 남경현 (3 February 2016). ""단원고 재학생에 교실 돌려주세요"" ["Please give Danwon High students their classrooms back"]. 동아일보. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  9. ↑ 김기성, 김기성 (16 February 2016). "'세월호 기억교실' 존치 갈등에…단원고 신입생 설명회 무산" [Sewol 'memory classroom' preservation dispute cancels Danwon High new-student orientation]. 한겨레. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  10. ↑ 박세미, 박세미 (16 February 2016). ""기억교실 문제 방관해온 이재정 교육감 사퇴하라"" ["Resign Superintendent Lee Jae-jeong for neglecting the memory-classroom issue"]. 조선일보. Retrieved 17 February 2016.

Further reading

37°19′39″N 126°49′27″E / 37.32750°N 126.82417°E / 37.32750; 126.82417