[MEGATHREAD] GARAM'S SCANDAL: Facts and updates in OP. Post here.

Confirmed parties involved:

Kim Garam, Yoo Eunseo [assumed name]

The confirmed only hard evidence by all parties as real + Ministry of Education.

Cropped photo of the top of the School of Violence Committee Result document that lists her as perpetrator, the date and that the judgement was made on Section 16 and Section 17.

Beginning: On April 5th, rumors started spreading online that Kim Garam was a bully. All comments were made anonymously and will not be discussed because they are unfounded. A week after the rumors started, the first piece of hard evidence surfaced and is as outlined above.

Source: Statement from Yoo Eunseo's Counsel Daeryun

• Eunseo changed schools because she couldn't handle the constant bullying from Garam and her friends. The law firm says it was Garam and her friends who made Eunseo change schools.
• Eunseo was told by friends that Garam was about to debut, and it caused her stress.
• A rumor online that Kim Garam was a bully was started online.
• In response, HYBE released a statement that this was slander.
• LE SSERAFIM fans found out about Eunseo and harassed her online. It went so far as to one person posting pictures of Eunseo where her face had been blurred, threatening her.
• Eunseo became paranoid that someone would leak her real photos and developed panic attacks, knowing that someone out there had her real pictures.
• Eunseo attempted suicide. Eunseo's parents pulled her out of school and are in the process of moving house at the moment.

Eunseo's law firm released a statement saying all of the above. They said they had previously sent certified mail on April 20th asking this and indicating the victim wanted nothing more than an apology and for them to retract the statement as it was causing her harm. They allege that Hybe ignored this and further said that if HYBE keptinsisting that Garam is a victim, they would release all of their proof.

Hybe released a counter statement with the below information indicating that Garam was only trying to protect a friend and was bullied for it.

Source: HYBE statement

• The people involved are Kim Garam, Yoo Eunseo (fake name), student A and student D. Garam and Eunseo used to be friends in early 2018. Garam, D and A were also friends.
• At a retreat, Eunseo learned Garam was gossiping [about what is unclear from the statement because it seems to indicate the gossip was about Kim Garam and friends]. They had an argument about it that lasted 3 hours, but apologized to each other after.
• Eunseo though told a male fellow student [based upon the next piece of information given in the statement, it seems to imply they were violent towards Garam as result of this]
• Friends of Kim Garam then confronted them about using physical violence towards Garam.
• Eunseo took the picture of D with underwear showing and posted it on social media via A's account, not her own.
• After being questioned about this [inferred: by the school] on behalf of D, Garam, A and friends confronted Eunseo outside of the school inquiry and cursed her out. Eunseo admitted misbehavior in the school inquiry, but was not punished by the school or school violence committee.
• Eunseo in turn reported the confrontation to the school. Garam and A (who had also testified on behalf of D) were written up by the school of violence committee for cornering/cursing out Eunseo.
• Victim D formally requested the the School Violence Committee force the transfer of Eunseo since she had admitted misbehavior, but before the committee could reconvene for this, Eunseo voluntarily transferred on her own. She transferred to another province and then 1-2 months later, transferred back to a school next door to Garam's.
• Garam was bullied by others for how this whole situation went down.
• Garam never changed schools for any reasons related to bullying.
• Garam never smoked and she never slandered "members of the same or a different group" (read Sakura and Wonyoung).

Great compilation by user bonjourmarlene here:

http://stage48.net/forum/index…/le-sserafim.23930/page-3

No, she was given the 5th measure as punishment.

The 9 measures in Article 17, paragraph 1 are:

Article 17 (Countermeasures against Aggressor Students)

(1) An autonomous committee shall request the head of a school to take any of the following measures (or several concurrent measures) against an aggressor student in order to protect a victim student or to enlighten and educate an aggressor student, and standards applicable to each measure shall be prescribed by Presidential Decree: Provided, That the expulsion from school shall not be applicable to an aggressor student enrolled in a compulsory educational course: <Amended by Act No. 9642, May 8, 2009; Act No. 11223, Jan. 26, 2012; Act No. 11388, Mar. 21, 2012>

1. An order to give a written apology to a victim student;

2. Prohibition against making contact with, threatening, or retaliation against a victim student and a student who has reported, or notified, school violence;

3. Service to a school;

4. Service to the society;

5. Completing a special educational course or receiving psychological treatment from an internal or external expert;

6. Suspension of attendance;

7. Change of class;

8. Transfer to another school;

9. Expulsion from a school.

On April 5th, after Kim Garam being announced as LE SSERAFIM member, The first post was made on Twitter (the account has been deleted now). Alleged predebut pictures began to circulate.

"School friend of Kim Garam stated that she is well known for picking on other students, drunk and smoke, attacked juniors who didn't greet her through facebook, etc. But there was also an old post Kim Garam facebook where she clarified that she and her gang didn't smoke"

Other allegations:

- The victim just collapsed and was sent to the ER after the perpetrators, which currently go to the same high school with the victim, wrote this on the board.

- Garam used to be in the debut line up of IVE.

- The victim(s) are stressed out after they saw her debut announcement.

"April 5th (Tue)
Yoonseo friend!!
LE SSERAFIM
congratulation on the debut
Kim Garam
"HYBE" (spource music) (you know bangtan right?)
Debut with Sakura and Kim Chaewon
won over IVE"

A screenshot was leaked on the same day. It was meant to hint that the information was true since there were many witnesses.

Meanwhile, on the same day, there were several people claiming to be Kim Garam's fellow middle school alumnus who created post to defend her. One of the OP on Pann claimed that

- Garam was not involved in drawing or writing the sexual trace

- Garam was a victim

- Garam helped OP to get along with other kids

Hello.

This is HYBE.

Since yesterday when the online rumors surrounding Kim Garam were first raised, HYBE has made efforts to confirm the facts. After a thorough search, we have discovered that:

- The accusations revolved around instances during the beginning of Kim Garam's middle school days, when she was just getting to know her classmates, and such instances were edited with malicious intent to problematize past events,

- A third party has confirmed that Kim Garam was in fact not a school bully, but a victim of various malicious rumors and cyber bullying during her middle school days.

- Furthermore, the rumors that Kim Garam was a trainee at a different agency, or rumors that inside documents from HYBE Labels have been leaked, are entirely false.

We believe that a large number of these accusations have been raised to slander our artist, who will be making her debut soon, and Source Music has begun procedures to move forward with strict legal action against any who spread one-sided, exaggerated rumors or false content regarding our artist."

CR: Allkpop

Regarding the controversy related to school violence by LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Garam and HYBE’s position, our legal firm will express the victim’s position based on the victim and her guardian’s statements and the report of the school violence committee overseen by the head of Gyeongin Middle School, and the messages from Kim Garam to the victim.

1. The authenticity of the notice of the results from the School Violence Countermeasures Committee

The notice of the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee, which there was controversy over its authenticity, is consistent with the results submitted by our client, which shows the seal of the head of Gyeongin Middle School.

2. The details of the incidents.

The victim (henceforth named using the pseudonym Yoo Eunseo) was a victim of school violence from Kim Garam and her friends from late April to early May 2018. She transferred to a new school one to two weeks after the incidents, unable to withstand the continuous group violence.

On June 4, 2018, the School Violence Countermeasures Committee was held and Kim Garam, a student who had committed school violence, was punished with six hours of special education pursuant to Article 17-1-5 of the Act on the Prevention and Countermeasure of School Violence. Her parents received five hours of special education in accordance with paragraph nine of the same article. Yoo Eunseo, a victim of school violence, received psychological counseling and advice in accordance with Article 16-1-1 of the same act.

The victim Yoo Eunseo voluntarily transferred because she could not withstand the continued bullying but she suffered from malicious rumors such as ‘Yoo Eunseo was in the wrong, that’s why she was forced to transfer.’

Then four years later, Kim Garam was revealed as a member of LE SSERAFIM in April 2022, and friends who knew about the incident contacted Yoo Eunseo and expressed their anger, saying ‘How can the perpetrator of school violence become a celebrity?’ Due to the constant media attention, Kim Garam was in the eyes of the media, which stressed out Yoo Eunseo.

Then a post on Nate Pann exposing Kim Garam was made, and the content noted that Kim Garam was well known for her poor attitude that those in the surrounding schools also knew, and if there was a student she didn’t like, she would gather other students to pick on and curse at that student together. The individual who made the post was also a victim of school bullying, that’s what the post meant. Including the post mentioned just now, several posts have been uploaded pointing out Kim Garam as a perpetrator of school violence.

Perhaps it’s because Yoo Eunseo was a victim at the hands of Kim Garam, that there was a comment made that it was Yoo Eunseo who made the post exposing Kim Garam as the perpetrator, but Yoo Eunseo was receiving messages through her social media accounts saying that she is maliciously slandering Kim Garam or that she is an orc who was just jealous of pretty girls. More comments such as ‘Everything [on her face] was redone, but she’s still ugly,’ ‘She’s slandering cause she’s jealous,’ were also received. But worse, some messages and posts even shared photos of Yoo Eunseo, blurring her out and threatening her with the message ‘Thanks for taking care of the mosaic. If you stalk LE SSERAFIM, you better get your grave ready.

Yoo Eunseo suffered extreme anxiety and fear at the thought that someone may have the original photo and that someone, whether it’s a blackmailer or another person making threats, would disseminate it through the internet to anyone, anywhere, at any time. She even suffered from panic attacks from time to time, where it was difficult for her to breathe because she felt like her heart was about to burst.

3. Sending the certified contents to HYBE and getting no response

At the time, HYBE had said that the suspicions made against Kim Garam were an issue of malicious slander by cleverly editing what happened with her friends and that Kim Garam was a victim of school violence.

With Yoo Eunseo being criticized and threatened by unidentified people for ‘slandering Kim Garam,’ she was indiscriminately attacked for the second time, and it intensified due to HYBE’s statement. Yoo Eunseo cried and refused to go to school, saying ‘I think this will only end when I die,’ and Yoo Eun Seo’s guardian sent a criminal complaint to our law firm, entrusting us with sending the victim’s position and the comments that stated Yoo Eunseo posted an article exposing Kim Garam as certified contents.

We have filed a criminal complaint against those who have falsely posted comments about Yoo Eunseo’s exposing Kim Garam at the Seoul Guro Police Station, and sent the certified mail to HYBE’s offices at Hangang-ro 42, Yongsan Trade Center on April 20, 2022, with the parcel number 310410003715.

The above-certified mail details the abuse committed by Kim Garam to Yoo Eunseo, a petition sharing Yoo Eunseo’s feelings, and the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee, where Kim Garam was noted as a perpetrator of school violence.

The victim did not ask for any compensation, but she urged for the deletion of the statement that was different from the truth, to make a statement based on the facts, an apology, and simply just the truth.

But HYBE did not reply to the certified mail, and Kim Garam’s entertainment activities are proceeding as if nothing has happened.

Yoo Eunseo, who could not endure the extreme anxiety and fear caused by the second round of attacks made on her, eventually attempted suicide. This led to her and her parents deciding for Yoo Eunseo to stop her studies and expressed their intention to have her drop out of school. Currently, she is being treated by a psychiatrist without attending school for the past seven weeks before finalizing the withdrawal process. Her mother has stopped all of her personal activities to take care of her and to prevent her from attempting to take her life again.

4. Refutation of the position that the allegations of school violence are slander against Kim Garam

The reason why Yoo Eunseo’s guardian decided to file a criminal complaint against Kim Garam’s school violence and sent the certified mail to HYBE without filing a civil complaint is that Yoo Eunseo and her guardian wanted to stop a second offense more than receive compensation.

However, when HYBE ignored the victim’s request to stop a second offense and when the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee became a problem, they repeated their statement that they will take legal action. Yoo Eunseo’s parents couldn’t tell their child to just endure the pain anymore, so they decided to reveal her situation through our law firm.

In this statement, detailed descriptions of the school violence that Kim Garam committed against Yoo Eunseo were omitted in hopes of an amicable resolution to the problem. HYBE did not provide a genuine apology to the victim, instead of saying that the allegations are slander and Kim Garam is the victim. If HYBE continues to maintain this position, we are considering releasing the full report from the School Violence Countermeasures Committee, including the summary of the case, as well as the victim statements given during the investigations as well as descriptions of the heinous abuse that was not included. Furthermore, we will release the curse-filled, threatening text messages that the abuser had sent to the victim to lure her to where the abuse took place.

5. Wrapping up

We must ponder what answers we can give to a student in a reality that makes it impossible for her to move on from the memories of her abuse and is yelling out, ‘This will only end if I die.’

It might be that for the abuser, this was done as a joke because it was the victim’s fault, and maybe this is natural in the course of a friendship.

However, to a student whose friends and school are her world, we must be prudent that it will be impossible for the victim’s abuse to be washed away or compensated for.

Only through the acknowledgment of the abuse and repentance can we prevent our children from being the next victims.

Hello, this is Source Music.

We would like to notify that LE SSERAFIM's scheduled appearance on KBS2's 'Music Bank' (on May 18 at 3 PM KST) and the group's scheduled video fan sign event (on May 18 at 8 PM KST) have been cancelled.

We apologize to fans who waited for the events, and also ask those who were selected to attend the pre-recording for 'Music Bank' for their understanding.

Additionally, the cancelled video fan sign event will be re-scheduled at a later date, and we will do our best to notify the fans who were selected for the event as soon as possible.

Lastly, we assure you that the agency will release a formal position on the recent accusations against a member of LE SSERAFIM once all details are confirmed.

Official Eng Translation:

https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/144/0000814274

Le Seraphim member Kim Ga-ram has been temporarily suspended due to suspicions of school violence. The agency explained that Kim Ga-ram received a disposition from the School Violence Autonomy Committee (School Bullying) for helping her friend, and maintained the position that Kim Ga-ram was a victim of school violence.

Hive made a statement on the 20th and said, "Ms. A (the student allegedly victimized) took a picture of Kim Ga-ram's acquaintance Ms. B while she was undressing at school, and then uploaded this picture to another friend's social networking service (SNS) without permission. “At that time, Miss B was mentally shocked, and a total of 5 friends, including Kim Ga-ram, met with Miss A separately and swear words in the process of protesting.”

She continued, “In the process, Miss A requested the convening of a school robbery, claiming that Kim Ga-ram and many of her friends harassed her, who was a minority. “Ms. A voluntarily transferred school at the request of Ms. B before the school robbery committee convened at her own request was over, while the forced transfer was being discussed.”

Hive explained that because of this, the school violence punishment was given to Kim Ga-ram and his acquaintance Ms. C. Hive argued, “There are many classmates who understand the core content related to the assault, and there are third parties who can testify to this.”

Hive admitted that the investigation was closed as a student who perpetrated Kim Ga-ram in the June 2018 school violence, which was revealed by the law firm Daeryun, the legal representative of Yang A.

Daeryun said, “A school violence committee was held in June 2018, and the perpetrator, Kim Ga-ram, was given 6 hours of special education and 5 hours of special education for parents, and victim A received protective measures such as psychological counseling and advice” He insisted that the previously published results of the school violence case in which Kim Ga-ram was a perpetrator was also true.

According to Dae-ryun's argument, it seems that Kim Ga-ram received the 5th measure from the school violence committee at the time. According to the School Violence Prevention and Countermeasures Act, the School Violence Committee may take measures 1 through 9 depending on the case of school violence. No. 9, the most serious measure, is expulsion.

In the case of the 5th measure of the Sexual Violence Commission that Kim Ga-ram received, the general consensus is that the school robbery commission judged that the intensity of the bullying was that serious.

In this regard, a lawyer who claimed to have participated in the school violence committee in the past said on Twitter on the 19th, "Experientially, the level of simple assault is resolved between No. But how did you make your debut?” he pointed out.

He continued, “It’s strange that I was selected as an idol trainee even though there was Measure 5. you,” he said.

On the online community, citing examples of past school violence cases, there are observations that the issue that was on the top of the bullying list at the time because Kim Ga-ram received Measure No.

In this regard, an official from the Ministry of Education said, "In the case of the School Violence Committee, it is true that there was a violent crime, as Kim Ga-Ram was named as a perpetrator, as the school violence committee has a strong autonomous nature and the propensity of the experts to participate is different. appears to be,” he said.