<전선> 한상희, "체벌 및 초중등교육법시행령 개정안의 위헌성 ― 학생인권·교육자치 훼손 문제를 중심으로 ―", <민주법학> 제45호, 2011. 3, 213-254쪽

<국문초록>

최근 교육과학기술부가 발표한 학교문화선진화방안(안)은 학교에서의 간접체벌을 허용하고 학생생활과 관련한 학칙규정의 개정과정에 학생들의 의견을 듣도록 하는 한편, 학칙의 개정에 대한 교육감의 인가권을 없애는 정책안들을 포함하고 있다. 하지만 이런 방안들은 대부분 국제인권법이나 헌법에 위반될 뿐만 아니라 우리나라의 초중등교육체계 자체에 대한 오해 혹은 왜곡에서 비롯한 것이라는 점에서 문제점이 적지 않다. 특히 체벌은 명확성의 결여, 포괄적 위임 등 형식적 면과 더불어 인격권과 적법절차의 권리, 평등권 등을 침해하고 있으며, 이 방안에서 허용하고 있는 간접체벌 또한 직접체벌과 양적·질적으로 구분될 수 없다는 점에서 이런 위법성을 그대로 안고 있는 것이 된다. 규율위반학생에 대한 출석정지제도도 학생의 법적 신분에 대한 변화를 야기하는 것임에도 불복의 장치를 마련하고 있지 않다는 점에서, 그리고 학교장의 학생인권보장의무규정안은 보호와 예방, 지원과 참여라는 아동인권보호원칙을 지원에만 한정하고 있다는 점에서 심각한 한계를 안고 있다. 학생의 학칙개정에 대한 참여도 단순한 의견청취에 그치고 있으며 그 범위 또한 학생징벌에 관한 것으로 축소하고 있어 그 실질이 누락되었으며, 교육감의 학칙인가권폐지의 시도는 교육지방자치의 근간을 부정할 우려가 있다는 점에서 심각한 문제를 안고 있다. 이 점에서 실제 학교문화의 ‘선진화’란 학교생활의 민주화를 바탕으로 한 교육과 학습의 공동체를 구축할 때 비로소 이루어질 수 있는 것임을 재확인할 필요가 있다.

주제어: 체벌, 학생인권, 훈육, 교육지방자치, 교육행정, 학교관리

<Abstract>

Disciplining Children in School and the Constitution: with special focus on Constitutionality of Corporal Punishment in School

Han, Sang Hie

Professor, Law School Konkuk University

Recently, the Ministry of Education and Technology(MoE) released a new plan for “Development of School Culture”(“the Plan”), which includes availability of ‘indirect’ corporal punishment for disciplining the students, ‘up to 10 days suspension’ of deviant students, and permission of using any TV channels in classroom without the Ministry’s intervention. This essay tries to criticize such measures, most of which are analysed to be unconstitutional.

According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, any type of corporal punishment infringes the human rights which are guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child(General Comment No. 8). So do the other cruel or degrading forms of punishment, which the Plan calls “indirect corporal punishment” and declares to be ‘permissible’ in the primary and secondary schools, even though those disciplinary measures should be contrary to the several provisions of the Korean Constitution such as §10(Right to pursuit of Happiness), §11(Equality before law), §12(Security of body), §37②(void for vagueness and overbreadth), as well as the constitutional principle of due process of law of §13.

The Plan’s proposal of ‘up to 10 days suspension’ may be contrary to the due process of law clause of the Constitution, because there is no procedural guarantee in exercising such a severe punishment which may change the legal status of the students, so that the accused students can have no chances to make statement for their interests and to challenge the suspension decisions even when they do not accept the decisions. According to the UNCRC, every party state should guarantee the rights of the child according to the principle of protection, prevention, provision, and participation. The Plan, however, reduces the obligation only to ‘discretionary provision’ which can be decided by the headmaster of the school, and declares de facto exemption of the headmaster from any other obligation. In Korea, every textbook and material used in classroom should be ‘censored’ by the Ministry. The Plan makes one exception from such control system: the TV programmes. It proposes that it should be the headmaster, not the Minister of Education, who can select any TV programmes and let the teachers under his/her supervision use them as educational materials in classroom. But there is no explanation on why the TV programmes, among so many texts and materials, should be exempt from the governmental control.

The worst part of the Plan is the revisionary bill of the Primary and Secondary School Act. According to the current Act, the headmaster shall get the approval of the relevant Superintendent to change and/or revise the school regulations. The Plan proposes that such approval procedures be removed in order to advance the autonomy of the front line schools. But such proposal has one serious peril in the governance structure of local education system: the principle of local governance of primary and secondary education. The Plan can produce a kind of direct control system where the national authorities of education can control the local and front line schools), which may result (in) total collapse of autonomy of the schools.

Key Words: corporal punishment, discipline, local governance of education, educational administration, school management