President Lee Myung-bak watched the local box-office sensation reconstructing the true story of teachers sexually abusing disabled students for years, and called for measures to prevent such crimes from happening again, his spokesman said.

The film “Dogani,” whose English title is “The Crucible,” has been South Korea’s top-grossing film in recent weeks. It is based on the shocking true story of teachers at a Gwangju school for the disabled committing repeated sex crimes against hearing-impaired students for five years from 2000.

The movie prompted intense public attention on a case that had largely been forgotten, with people outraged not only over the heartless crimes, but also over the light punishments the convicted teachers were given.

Of the six teachers charged, only two received actual jail terms of less than a year, with the others getting suspended terms and acquitted of charges.

President Lee watched the film on Monday afternoon, his spokesman Park Jeong-ha said.

“It is necessary to make legal and institutional supplementations to prevent a similar incident from happening again,” Lee said

But more pressing than that is to reform the social consciousness,” Lee said during a meeting with senior secretaries, according to Park.

Lee also called for greater attention to caring for the socially weak, Park said. 

(Yonhap News)