An alleged victim recently revealed what seems to be the real level of Kim Garam’s school bullying.
Recently, an alleged bullying victim of LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam stated that the female idol used to receive punishment from the School Violence Committee.
According to a lawyer who specializes in bullying cases, the levels of punishments are categorized as follows:
- Level 1: Written apology to the victim
- Level 2: Forbidden from contact with the victim
- Level 3: Voluntary school service
- Level 4: Voluntary community service
- Level 5: Special educational program and behavioral therapy sessions
- Level 6: School suspension
- Level 7: Class change
- Level 8: School change
- Level 9: School expulsion (not applicable for secondary students)
If the recent accusations turn out to be true, then LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam would be a Level 5 perpetrator, who was unable to reassess herself after a long period of bullying her school mates. Level 5 and onwards perpetrators and their parents would need to attend a special educational program and behavioral therapy sessions, as well as pay a punishment fee of 3 million won (over 2,000 USD).
Level 5 is considered to be a high enough level. Therefore, if the allegations were true, HYBE would be with full knowledge regarding the matter.
According to many netizens, normally, school violence records would be deleted after 2 years. However, while Kim Garam has graduated secondary school, she is still a 2nd year student in senior high school, and if true, her bullying records should still be available. In addition, many claimed that even if the records were gone, Kim Garam started training since she was in middle school, so her company couldn’t have been ignorant of her past.
Previously, only one idol was confirmed to have received punishment from the School Violence Committee, and it was Kim So Hye, formerly from girl group I.O.I. However, Kim So Hye’s bullying was only marked as level 1, so Kim Ga Ram’s alleged level 5 punishment is on a whole other level of severity.
