Article: Kim Garam's alleged school violence, further testimony exposed.. Victim "Secondary assault, pain"
Source: SPOTV News
Kim Garam's victim A has opened her mouth over alleged bullying.
Below is A's statement revealed through her legal representative Daeryun Law Firm on the 19th:
1. Authenticity of School Violence Countermeasures Committee Result Notification
The results report of the autonomous school violence committee, authenticity, and contents match.
2. Incident
The victim (pseudonym 'Yoo Eun-seo') suffered school violence from Kim Garam and her friends at the end of April through early May of 2018 and had to transfer to another school. After that, on June 4, 2018, the School Violence Committee was held and Kim Garam, as a perpetrator of school violence, completed 6 hours of special education in accordance with Article 17, Paragraph 1, No. 5 of the School Violence Prevention and Countermeasures Act. In accordance with Paragraph 9, parents were given 5 hour session after completing special education and Yoo Eun-seo, the victim, received protection measures such as psychological counseling and advice in accordance with Article 16, Paragraph 1 of the same Act.
Eun-seo, was unable to withstand continuous bullying and despite voluntarily transferring to another school, suffered from malicious rumors that she transferred out of her own fault and had difficult time.
About 4 years have passed since then and Kim Garam was revealed as a Le Sserafim member on April 4, 2022 and friends who knew of the incident at the time contacted Yoo Eun-seo and said, "How can a perpetrator of school violence become a celebrity!" Yoo Eun-seo, who wanted to forget the incident the time was reminded again and became stressed of the thought that she'll continue to see her perpetrator on TV leading a splendid life as a celebrity.
Then a post titled "I'm Le Sserafim Garam's classmate" was posted on Nate Pann and contents that Kim Garam was infamous for her poor character among surrounding schools were exposed. These are all related to Kim Garam, her and her group would get together and curse, criticize and ridicule. Several posts have been uploaded including one above that pointed out Garam as school violence perpetrator.
Maybe it was because of the posts that exposed Yoo Eun-seo as her victim but Yoo Eun-seo received Facebook and Twitter DMs from people she didn't know saying "Yoo Eun-seo maliciously abused Kim Garam" "She's just a b*tch that jealous of other pretty girls" "She's drunk with jealousy," etc. Some even shared blurred pictures of Eun-Seo and said, "prepare for your grave" and sent her threats.
Because of that Eun-seo suffered from extreme anxiety and fear at the thought that someone might have her real pictures and would expose them online. She even had panic attacks that made it difficult for her to breathe and thought she was going to explode.
3. HYBE's statement
At the time, HYBE said that the "allegations against Kim Garam were maliciously edited to insinuate she was a bully, but really she was the victim." In a situation where Yoo Eun-seo was already being criticized and threatened from anonymous people, HYBE's statement intensified and added secondary assault on the victim. Because of that, Yoo Eun-seo cried and said, "Things will only end if I die." That's when she decided to file a criminal complaint against the malicious comments.
Our law firm filed a criminal complaint with the Seoul Guro Police Station against those that sent malicious comments over exposing Kim Garam with HYBE as addressee as follows: 2022-4-20 No. 310410003715, and the addressee, HYBE Co., Ltd. (HYBE Co., Ltd.), Address 42 Hangang-daero 42 (Hangang-ro 3-ga, Yongsan Trade Center), Yongsan-gu, Seoul, sent it as certified mail and reached the address above on April 21, 2022 at 10:38am.
We detailed and documented evidence of the harm Yoo Eun-seo, the victim, suffered at the hands of Kim Garam and attached the school violence committee report that detailed Garam's abuse. Eun-seo didn't demand any compensation just that they delete statements that were far from facts and apologize to the victim. We urged them to make a statement and clarify the fake facts.
However, HYBE didn't reply at all and Garam continued promoting like nothing happened.
Unable to withstand the extreme anxiety and fear from the secondary assault, Yoo Eun-seo eventually attempted suicide. In response, her parents and Yoo Eun-seo chose to completely stop her studies and she dropped out of school. Currently, due to the 7-week deliberation period before final dropout process, Eun-seo can't go to school and is receiving psychiatrist treatment under her parents care.
4. Refuting their position that bullying claims were malicious (defamation) against Kim Garam
Yoo Eun-seo or her guardians never once filed a criminal complaint or suit against Kim Garam over the school violence, rather she sent proof of contents to HYBE and a criminal complaint on comments she received over their secondary assault. The only reason why Yoo Eun-seo filed the complaint is because she desperately wanted the 'secondary harm' to stop, not compensation.
But HYBE ignored the victim's request to stop the secondary harm and furthermore, expressed a strong stance against the school violence committee report. Yoo Eun-seo's parents couldn't put up with their child's pain any longer and decided to reveal the victim's position through this law firm.
Although the detailed description of the school violence that Kim Garam committed to Yoo Eun-seo was omitted from this statement for an amicable resolution of the issue, HYBE didn't give a genuine apology to the victim saying, the allegation is a "malicious misdemeanor and Garam is the victim."
This law firm plans to disclose the full contents of the School Violence Committee's report including an outline of the case in order to protect the victim who's a minor.
We're also considering releasing text messages containing detailed statements of Garam's victims and abusive language she used to call out victims to the scene of gang violence so HYBE and affiliates Source Music should pay special attention so that there is no more secondary harm to the victim.
5. Conclusion
At the end of the day, we need to think deeply about the kind of of answer our society is giving to young students who are crying out saying "I think it will end if I die."
From the perpetrator's point of view, the reason for inflicting the school violence may be because it was a joke and maybe to them, the victim did something wrong or it could've been a "process of making friends." But, for a young student whose school life with friends is the only thing they live in, the perpetrator must seriously recognize that gang violence remains a deep scar in their hearts and cannot be reversed by any compensation or treatment. Strict awareness of school violence and thorough reflection on it are the minimum protections that can prevent our kids from becoming the next victims.
