“On the sidewalk in front of an elementary school in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, condolence wreaths were lined up on the 23rd. / Yonhap News”
Residents of Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si held a protest using condolence wreaths to demand severe punishment for a school violence incident involving a city council member’s child.
On the 23rd, around 100 condolence wreaths were lined up on the sidewalk in front of an elementary school in Bundang-gu, demanding the resignation of city council member A, whose child was involved in a recent school violence incident at the school.
Local residents created a group chat the day before about the school violence incident and decided to hold a condolence wreath protest demanding the resignation of council member A. The condolence wreaths that were lined up in front of the elementary school were reportedly sent individually by participants of the group chat and parents from an online mom’s cafe.
Messages on the wreaths included phrases like “We, the mothers of Bundang, are with you, child,” “Sorry, adults didn’t understand,” “Transferring classes is just a slap on the wrist,” “Resign, the city council member who is a bully’s parent,” and “We demand the forced transfer of all perpetrators.”
According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, between April and June at this elementary school, four 6th-grade students committed acts of school violence, such as mixing snacks with sand and forcing another student to eat them in a park, and physically pressing down on the student under the guise of gaming penalties.
The victim is reportedly from a grandparent-headed household, and despite the school violence report, proper separation measures were not taken against the perpetrators.
Amid these circumstances, it became known that one of the perpetrators is the child of council member A, which sparked a large public outcry. Although council member A issued an apology letter on the 17th, more than 1,000 posts demanding the member’s resignation were uploaded to the Seongnam City Council’s website.