Alleged Bullying Victim Of Kim Garam Releases Shocking Statement, Revealed To Have Attempted Suicide, Lawyer Says Evidence Will Be Shared Unless.. + HYBE’s Response

Alleged Bullying Victim Of Kim Garam from LE SSERAFIM has come out with her own statement and her testimony shocked everyone including fans and netizens leading to more demanding the idol’s departure from the group.

NOTE: TW/ DISCUSSION OF SUICIDE AND BULLYING

On May 19, the alleged victim of LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Garam bullying has stepped up to provide their own detailed statement of the issues they suffered revealing some shocking details.

Here is their statement:

“Regarding the controversy over school violence by LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Garam and HYBE’s position, the legal firm Daeryun Law Firm will express the victim’s position based on the statement of the victim and guardian, the report of the autonomous school violence committee under the name of the head of the Middle School.

1. Authenticity of School Violence Countermeasures Committee Result Notification

The results reports [the one that was exposed recently by a netizen] of the autonomous school violence committee, authenticity, and contents match. It is consistent with the notification of the result of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee with the seal of the head of Gyeongin Middle School submitted by the client.

2. details of the incident

The victim (a pseudonym “Yoo Eun-seo”) suffered school violence from Kim Ga-ram and her friends around the end of April to early May 2018, she had to transfer to another school after the incident, unable to withstand the continued group violence.

After that, the School Violence Countermeasures Committee was held on June 4, 2018, and Kim Garam, a student who committed school violence, received six hours of special education as well as five hours of special education for her parents under Article 17 (1) 5 of the School Violence Act.

Yoo Eun-seo, a victim of school violence, received psychological counseling and advice in accordance with Article 16, Paragraph 1 of the same Act.

Victim Yoo Eun-seo was forced to transfer due to the bullying, even though she was transferred because she could not withstand the continuous group abuse.’ she suffered from malicious rumors and had a hard time even after transferring schools.

About four years later, Kim Ga Ram was revealed as a member of LE SSERAFIM on April 2022, and friends who knew the incident contacted Yoo Eun-seo and expressed their anger, saying, ‘How can the perpetrator of school violence become a celebrity?’ Yoo Eun-seo was stressed out by the thought that she’ll continue to see her perpetrator on TV leading a splendid life as a celebrity despite attempting to do her best to forget the incident.

Then, a post titled“I’m Le Sserafim Garam’s classmate” was posted on Nate Pann, and the content that said Kim Garam was infamous for her poor character among surrounding schools was 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 the one above pointing out Garam’s as a school violence perpetrator.

Perhaps because Yoo Eun-seo is a victim of school violence by Kim Ga-ram, she received DMs to the effect of ‘Yoo Eun-seo maliciously abused Kim Garam,’ ‘she’s a bitch that is jealous of other pretty girls,’ ‘she’s drunk with jealousy,’ and more. Some even shared blurred pictures of Eun Seo saying ‘prepare your grave’ and began sending threats.

Yoo Eun-seo suffered extreme anxiety and fear at the thought that someone might reveal her real pictures and would expose them online. She had panic attacks that made it difficult for her to breathe and thought her heart was going to explode.

3. Sent content to HYBE and no reply
At that time, HYBE Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as HYBE) said, “The suspicion of school violence against Kim Ga-ram is a maliciously slandered issue by cleverly editing what happened, ‘Kim Garam is a victim of bullying.’ They announced their position to the effect of that.

Yoo Eun-seo was already getting criticized and threatened from anonymous people and HYBE’s statement intensified that and added secondary assault to the victim. Because of this, Yoo Eun-seo cried and refused to go to school saying, ‘it will only end if I die.’ Yoo Eun-seo’s guardian then decided to file a criminal complaint against malicious commenters.

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.

The above proof of contents details the mass abuse committed by Kim Ga-ram to Yoo Eun-seo, a petition containing Yoo Eun-seo’s feelings, and a notification of the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee, which Kim Ga-ram had taken as a perpetrator of school violence.
The victim did not ask for any compensation, but urged them to delete the statement that was different from the truth, to make a statement based on the facts only, and to apologize for the victim. We urged them to make a statement to clarify the fake facts.

However, HYBE didn’t reply at all and Garam continued to promote as if nothing happened.

Yoo Eun-seo, who could not endure the extreme anxiety and fear caused by the second assault, eventually attempted suicide. Yoo Eun-seo and her parents decided to stop Yoo Eun-seo’s studies altogether and expressed their intention to drop her out of school. Currently, Yoo Eun-seo is being treated at a psychiatrist treatment without going to school for seven weeks before the final dropout process is completed. Yoo’s mother stopped all her activities to take care of Yoo Eun-seo to prevent Yoo Eun-seo from attempting suicide again.

4. Refuting their position that bullying claims were malicious slander (defamation) against Kim Garam

Yoo Eun-seo or her guardian never decided to file a criminal complaint against Kim Ga-ram’s for the school violence, they rather sent proof of contents to HYBE and a criminal complaint on comments she received over the secondary assault. The only reason she filed the complaint is because she desperately wanted the second assault to end, not compensation.

However, when HYBE ignored the victim’s request to stop the second assault, and furthermore, when the document of the results of the School Violence Countermeasures Committee was revealed, they expressed a strong stance.

Yoo Eun-seo’s parents couldn’t put up with their child’s pain much longer and decided to take legal action which led to the victim’s position being revealed through this law firm.

In this statement, details of the school violence report committed by Kim Ga-ram to Yoo Eun-seo was omitted for a smooth resolution to this issue.

However, HYBE didn’t give a true apology for the victim and said the allegations were malicious and Garam is the victim.

If you continue to maintain this position, in order to protect the minor victim, this law firm will disclose the full text of the results of the Autonomous Committee for Countermeasures against School Violence, including an outline of the case.

We are also considering releasing the full text of the message containing the victim’s detailed statement and profanity used by Garam used to call out the victims to the scene of gang violence, so HYBE and its affiliated Source Music, please pay special attention to this so that there is no more secondary harm.

5. conclusion

At the end, we need to think deeply about the kind of answer our society is giving to young students who are crying out and saying, ‘I think this will end if I die.’

From the perpetrator’s point of view, the reason for school violence may be that it was a joke, or that the victim did something wrong, or that it could have been the process of making friends.’ But for a young student whose life with friends is the only thing they have, the perpetrator must seriously recognize that gang violence remains a deep scar in their hearts and cannot ever be reversed by any compensation or treatment.

Only strict awareness of school violence and thorough reflection are the minimum protections that can prevent our children from becoming the next victims from school violence.”

Following the statement, HYBE released a statement that garnered a lot of negative feedback.

Their statement reads as follows:

“Hello, this is HYBE and source music.

Earlier this afternoon, law firm Daeryun shared their position on their client’s accusing LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Garam of alleged school violence, it was sent out to the media.

First of all, it is regrettable that Daeryun unilaterally announced its position to a large number of media oulets despite the fact that a large number of minors are involved in the current controversial issue with LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Garam.

We’d like to disclose that Daeryun has summarized and announced some of the issues that actually occurred in 2018 in a way that favors their side, so we will summarize and announce our official position in the near future. Therefore, we urge all journalists to refrain from reporting based on one side’s one-sided claims only.

once again, We would like to say that this controversy started when false information about a member who was about to debut was circulated. We judged that the dissemination of false information was malicious and immediately took legal action, and this procedure is still in progress.

Although the member was the target of malicious attacks behind anonymity online, the reason we did not actively explain this was that many of the peers who were involved in what happened were in the first year of middle school, and these are still minors. That is why we have approached it with caution.

However, the details of this case that took place in 2018 are currently being communicated only through the position of one side, thus, we will clarify our position as soon as the review of Daeryun’s claim is completed.

Thank you.”

Source: (A), (B)