“We are so afraid we can’t sleep a wink…” Messages from parents of the Kyungbok High School student to aespa fans
The text messages received by aespa fans from parents of the Gyeongbok High School student are drawing attention.
On May 3rd, on an online community, a post titled “aespa fans are asked to take down their post by the family of the student related to the Gyeongbok High School controversy” was uploaded. The post contained the contents of a tweet.
One aespa fan tweeted: “It’s really embarrassing. Is your family the only thing you care about? They did ridiculous sexual harassment to the members who even went to your kids’ school and performed their best on the stage. Didn’t you think about the feelings of the members who went through it at all? How selfish and shameless. I don’t understand why they say they’re afraid of what they’ve committed,” the account said with anger.
The messages, which were then released, said, “I’m the family of the student involved in the Gyeongbok High School incident. Your post is so influential that when it is retweeted and spread, people are posting unacceptable words along with the student’s real names. The student is going through something far beyond just reflecting on his mistake, and has to undergo psychological treatment as he is experiencing a scary situation that he never experienced before.”
This person then requested, “My family is so afraid they can’t sleep a wink. I know I’m not in a situation where I can ask you to remove the post, but please help us.”
However, the aespa fan who received the text message said, “It’s a shame that the perpetrator is afraid of the situation he created. Does this make sense? Of course, it can be scary to be criticized, but you brought this upon yourselves. Think about who felt scared the most.”
Meanwhile, on May 2nd, aespa attended the festival of Kyungbok High School, SM Entertainment Lee Soo-man‘s alma mater. Afterward, controversy arose as screenshots of photos of aespa containing obscene remarks were released.
After their first apology faced criticism and was deleted, Kyungbok High School issued the second apology saying, “We tried to maintain the order of the event, but some students were not mature enough while watching the performance, and had caused a stir by posting photos and writing comments on SNS after the event.”
