Another issue of school violence brought against K-pop boy band Seventeen’s Mingyu has been dispelled.
This time, a netizen claimed that Mingyu stood by laughing while watching a middle school classmate being assaulted.
Pledis Entertainment issued a statement on March 21 and clarified that Mingyu had nothing to do with the incident.
School violence under Korea’s Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence In Schools is defined as “actions committed against students inside or outside of school premises resulting in a physical or mental injury, or damage to property through a battery, assault, confinement, threat, kidnapping, abduction, defamation, insult, extortion, coercion, forced errand, sexual violence, bullying, or cyber-bullying, or with obscene or violent information via an information and communications network.”
Here is Pledis Entertainment’s complete statement on the latest issue against Mingyu:
“We would like to provide additional information on what we have been able to confirm regarding SEVENTEEN member MINGYU.
“Representatives of our company were able to contact the individual who wrote the allegations that the artist stood by laughing while watching a middle school classmate being assaulted. While this individual wrote the posting claiming to be a witness in order to remain anonymous, the person had in fact been the student involved in this incident.
“After hearing the original poster’s account of the events, our company worked to confirm the facts of the incident with testimony from the people mentioned as being involved as well as additional statements from other graduates of the school.
“First, the artist clearly stated that he did not recall the incident that was mentioned by the original poster, and he did not encourage assault against another student nor stand by laughing and making derogatory remarks.
“The individual who posted the allegation named certain people as being the perpetrators, and our company verified the statements of those identified as the perpetrators as well as other graduates who are presumed to have been present at the incident. Not one of these individuals recalled the incident as happening as claimed by the original poster.
“The original poster then contacted a friend remembered as being present at the scene when the incident occurred, who, according to the poster, also did not recall the event. The poster then informed our company that since no one allegedly involved in the event did not have any memory of this event, the poster did not wish the discussion regarding the issue to continue.
“We are deeply concerned that a claim was published online regarding an event solely based on the memory of a certain individual, and that it is being allowed to conclude when recollections of the event are shown to be uncertain.
“While it is fortunate that this and all other previous incidents have been confirmed to be unrelated to our artist, we are forced to contemplate how much suffering must be allowed to be inflicted on those involved in such an allegation, in addition to the time and effort required to dispel such claims.
“However, as we discussed this issue with the individual who posted the original allegations, we noted that this individual, while unrelated to the actions of our artist, did suffer from abusive interactions with classmates, and we have thus decided to refrain from taking additional steps and consider the issue to be resolved with the verification of the facts.
“We have contacted and completed our discussions with everyone related to this issue who could be identified. We will provide an update if any additional information is made available.”