‘Hard to accept’: couple calls for tougher punishment after toddler dies at South Korean day care
- A day care teacher, who wanted the Vietnamese couple’s 18-month-old son to get more sleep, applied excessive force on him for 15 minutes, investigations showed
- The teacher was last month handed 19 years in jail for suffocating the boy, a sentence the couple feels is inadequate: ‘She killed a baby’
In March 2021, their son, Tran Viet Bach, was born in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. A work accident and study commitments led the parents to send their 18-month-old child to a daycare facility in November 2022.
Five days later, the boy died at the centre.
An autopsy showed he had suffocated to death. Police investigations showed that a day care teacher wanted the child to get more sleep and so applied excessive force on him for 15 minutes.
We are fighting to get her more than 19 years of imprisonment
Prosecutors sought a 30-year prison term for the teacher, claiming the death was the result of murder due to gross negligence, while the defendant claimed it was an accident. The presiding judge last month sentenced the teacher to 19 years behind bars.
The couple appealed the ruling, claiming the sentence was not harsh enough.
“Nineteen years makes no sense. She killed a baby and only gets 19 years in prison? Something is very wrong,” said Tran, the father. “We are fighting to get her more than 19 years of imprisonment.”
Tran still remembers how healthy his son was.
“He was totally fine and well. He ate well and slept well. And he’s suddenly dead,” he said. “It is hard to accept.”
South Korea’s child abuse record is grim. Abuses take place mostly at home, according to experts, but childcare teachers have also been known to commit abuses.
The couple lives in guilt of having sent their son to a day care facility.
“I had surgery on my back and my wife had classes to attend. We needed help and saw the day care facility as an opportunity,” Tran said. “When we look back, we were selfish. I could have postponed the surgery. My wife could have gone to the school later.”
Almost six months on, they cannot sleep without medication, and attend counselling programmes. “We feel like we killed him,” he said.
Kang Hee-soo, who runs a non-profit organisation that provides free meals for the elderly and is helping the couple with the legal process, said the boy could have been saved if the staff had been more careful.
He said current laws had to be revised to provide parents regular access to CCTV cameras.
“Only this way, employees at childcare facilities will become more careful with the children they care for,” Kang told The Korea Times.
Meanwhile, the couple has not informed their parents about what happened.
“We told them he died, but didn’t tell the truth about why he died,” Tran said. “It will make them worry and [become] ill.”
South Korea has been tough to the couple on many levels. Tran was injured at work, but his employer refused to pay for his treatment. Tran paid for the surgery using his own money.
Now, the couple relies financially on Vo, who is on a student visa and earns a small income through a part-time job.
“We still want to settle in Korea and make a family. But not now,” Tran said. “When we do have a baby, we will not send them to a facility until she or he is able to speak.”
