A bullied victim of LE SSERAFIM Kim Ga-ram has stepped out: “If HYBE’s position shows no revision, I will reveal the abusive messages”
A person claiming to be Kim Ga-ram’s victim has stepped up against her with their own legal representative.
Regarding HYBE’s position related to the controversy over school violence by LE SSERAFIM Kim Ga-ram, Daeryun, a law firm affiliated with the victim’s representative Daeryun Law Group, announced the victim’s position on May 19th based on statements of the victim and her guardians as well as the result notification of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee under the name of the head of Gyeongin Middle School.
The victim side said, “The result notification of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee that is going viral online is consistent with the result notification of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee with the seal of the head of Gyeongin Middle School submitted by the law firm from the victim.”
“I was assaulted by Kim Garam and her friends from late April to early May 2018, and after that, I transferred to another school after a week or two because I couldn’t stand their group bullying anymore,” she said. “After that, the School Violence Countermeasures Committee was held on June 4th, 2018, and Kim Ga-ram, the student who committed school violence, received six hours of special education under Article 17 (1) 5 of the Act, five hours of special education for her guardians under Article 17 (9) of the Act, and Yoo Eun-seo, the victim of school violence, received psychological counseling and protection measures.”
According to the legal representative, the victim had had a hard time even after transferring school as she suffered from malicious rumors that she was forced to transfer due to her wrongdoings, even though she was transferred at her own will because she couldn’t bear the continued group violent action towards her.
About four years later, Kim Ga-ram is revealed as a member of LE SSERAFIM, and friends who knew of the incident immediately contacted the victim and expressed their anger, saying, “How can a school bully become a celebrity!” The victim also said, “I was stressed out as I’m reminded of the memory that I want to forget, and I’m upset that I will have to keep seeing the bully who bullied me living a luxury life as a celebrity on media.”
The victim’s side said, “We are also considering releasing the victim’s detailed statement about the terrible school violence at the time and the messages which contain abusive language to call the victim to the scene of their group abuse,” and added, “HYBE and its affiliated Source Music should keep this in mind so that they won’t commit another bullying case towards the victim.”
Below is the official position from the victim of Kim Garam’s bullying case”
Regarding HYBE’s position related to the controversy over school violence by LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam, Daeryun, a law firm affiliated with the victim’s representative Daeryun Law Group, announced the victim’s position on May 19th based on statements of the victim and her guardians as well as the result notification of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee under the name of the head of Gyeongin Middle School.
1. The notice of results from the School Violence Prevention Committee, which raised suspicions about its authenticity, is consistent with the notice of results from the School Violence Prevention Committee with the seal of Gyeongjin Middle School submitted by the client.
2. The details of the incident
The victim (assumed to be Yoo Eun-seo) suffered school violence because of Kim Ga-ram and her friends around the end of April to early May 2018. She was then transferred to another school 1-2 weeks after the incident because she could not tolerate the group violence anymore.
After that, the School Violence Prevention Committee was established on June 4th, 2018. Kim Ga-ram, the student who committed school violence, was given the punishment of six hours of special education under Article 17 (1) V of the Act on the Prevention of School Violence, and 5 hours of special education for her parents under Article 17 (5). Meanwhile, Yoo Eun-seo, the school violence victim, was given protective measures such as psychological counseling and advice in accordance with Article 16 (1) I.
Although victim Yoo Eun-seo transferred to another school of her own will because she could not bear the continuous group violence but she continued to suffer a hard time due to malicious rumors that said “Yoo Eun-seo was forced to transfer because of her fault”.
About 4 years later, Kim Ga-ram was introduced as a member of LE SSERAFIM in April 2022 so friends who knew about her school violence contacted Yoo Eun-seo. “How can the school violence perpetrator become a celebrity!”, Yoo Eun-seo expressed her anger and stress as she was forced to recall the incident that happened at the time, which she wanted to forget the most and to think about continuing to see the perpetrator who bullied her live a happy life as a celebrity through the media.
Then, an article titled “I want to expose LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Ga-ram” was uploaded on Nate Pann’s bulletin board. The content was “Kim Ga-ram was so famous for the point that there was no one who didn’t know her. Kim Ga-ram was related to almost all the school violence cases at that time. If there were any students who didn’t like her, it was common to see groups of people come to curse, tease, and laugh at them. I’m a victim of school violence.” After then, several articles continued to be posted, pointing out Kim Ga-ram as a school violence perpetrator.
Yoo Eun-seo was the victim of Kim Ga-ram’s school violence but she received malicious comments on Facebook and Twitter from people she didn’t even know threatening her, “Yoo Eun-seo maliciously slanders Kim Ga-ram”, “You’re just jealous of pretty girls”, “If you fix your everything, you still look ugly”, “What a shame of your envy”, etc. Some people even revealed photos of Yoo Eun-seo but blurred her face, saying, “Thank me for the mosaic. If you stalk LE SSERAFIM, get ready to die”, etc.
Yoo Eun-seo suffered from extreme anxiety and fear of not knowing when, where, from whom, or what harm she might suffer. She was worried that someone might release her face without mosaic, or if anyone, a blackmailer, would spread it on the Internet. She even got panic and was difficult to breathe because her heart was about to explode.
3. Already sent the proof content to HYBE but no reply
At that time, HYBE said, “The recent allegations were cunningly edited to maliciously slander Kim Ga-ram over the events that occurred during the time when she was making friends in the early stages of middle school. Contrary to the claims, it was confirmed through a third-party statement that Kim Garam was a victim of school bullying.”
In a situation where Yoo Eun-seo is being criticized and threatened by unknown people for “slandering Kim Ga-ram”, HYBE’s above statement was added, and the indiscriminate secondary assault on Yoo Eun-seo intensified. Regarding this, Yoo Eun-seo cried and refused to go to school, saying, “I think it will end only when I die.” Yoo Eun-seo‘s guardian delegated the law firm to send the victim’s position to HYBE as content proof, as well as to file a criminal complaint against false and malicious comments that Yoo Eun-seo was trying to slander Kim Ga-ram.
The law firm filed a criminal complaint to the Seoul Guro Police Station against those who made false comments that Yoo Eun-seo wrote a revelation about Kim Ga-ram. For HYBE, the law firm sent a content-certified mail “2022-4-20, No.310410003715, addressee HYBE Co., Ltd., address 42 Hangang-daero Yongsan-gu Seoul” which has reached the above address at 10:38 on April 21st, 2022.
The above content proof described in detail the act of gang violence committed by Kim Ga-ram to Yoo Eun-seo, a petition containing the feelings of Yoo Eun-seo, who suffered from the misunderstanding that she maliciously slandered Kim Ga-ram, and a result notification from the School Violence Countermeasures Committee in which Kim Ga-ram was considered as a perpetrator of school violence.
The victim’s side did not demand any compensation but urged them to delete the statement that was different from the truth, to make another statement based on the facts, to apologize to the victim, and not to make a statement that is different from the truth only by Kim Ga-ram and her friends’ one-sided utterances.
However, HYBE did not reply at all, and Kim Ga-ram‘s entertainment activities continued as if nothing had happened.
Yoo Eun-seo, who could not endure the extreme anxiety and fear caused by the secondary assault, eventually made a suicide attempt. Yoo Eun-seo and her parents decided to completely suspend Yoo Eun-seo’s studies and expressed her intention to drop out of school. Currently, Yoo Eun-seo is receiving treatment from a psychiatrist and cannot go to school due to the 7-week consideration period before the final dropout process. Yoo Eun-seo’s mother has stopped all of her outside activities to take care of Yoo Eun-seo in order to prevent her from attempting suicide again.
4. Refutation of HYBE’s position that the school violence allegation is malicious slander against Kim Ga-ram
The reason why Yoo Eun-seo‘s guardian decided to file a criminal complaint against Kim Ga-ram’s school violence and send proof of contents to HYBE without filing a civil lawsuit is that Yoo Eun-seo and her guardian just wanted to “stop the secondary bullying” more than any compensation.
However, as HYBE ignored the victim’s request, did not give a genuine apology, and furthermore, when the document of “School Violence Countermeasures Committee” naming Kim Ga-ram as a perpetrator was published and caused a stir, HYBE repeated its existing position of “the allegation against Kim Ga-ram is a malicious intent” and even announced to take legal action, Yoo Eun-seo‘s parents couldn’t just put up with their child’s pain any longer, so they came to reveal the victim’s position through our law firm.
Although the detailed description of the school violence that Kim Ga-ram committed to Yoo Eun-seo was omitted in this statement for an amicable resolution of the issue and protection of the victim who is a minor, if HYBE continues to maintain their position of defending Kim Ga-ram and claiming she is a victim, the law firm will disclose the full text of the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee, including an outline of the case. The firm is also considering releasing the detailed statements of the victim and the full-text messages containing abusive language to call the victim to the scene of their group abuse, so HYBE and Source Music had better pay attention to this so that there is won’t be any secondary bullying happening.
5. Conclusion
In a reality where victims of school violence are not even allowed to forget the pain they have suffered, we need to think deeply about what kind of answer our society can give to a young student who screams, ‘I think it will only end if I die.’
From the perpetrator’s point of view, the reason for committing school violence may be because it was a joke, a way to ‘make friends’, or because the victim did something wrong.
However, the perpetrator must be sternly aware that the experience of being a victim of gang violence remains a scar deep in the heart and cannot be healed with any compensation or treatment for young students whose school life with friends is everything in the world they live in.
Only strict awareness of school violence and thorough reflection on it are the minimum protections that can prevent children from becoming the next victims of school violence.
Source: Daum
