[Anchor]
Another case suspected of child abuse has occurred at a Taekwondo gym, prompting a police investigation. A gym director forcibly grabbed and spread a 7-year-old child's legs for a split, pressing down heavily from above. The child suffered a broken thigh bone and is still unable to walk properly.
This is an exclusive report by Jeong Jiyeon.
[Reporter]
On June 18, at a Taekwondo gym in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
The Taekwondo gym director, A, roughly grabs a running child and lays him down on a mat.
Director A then holds the child's legs with both hands to spread them apart, and presses down heavily using his body weight.
The child struggles in pain and even signals to stop, but the director does not stop.
The 7-year-old victim suffered a fractured femur from this incident and is still unable to walk properly two months later.
[Victim's Parent: The emergency room doctor told me. A child's bones usually bend, they don't just snap like this. To fracture to this extent, child abuse is somewhat suspected.]
Director A reportedly explained to the victim's parents that it was a disciplinary action because the child was not paying attention while preparing for a promotion test at the time.
In a phone call with SBS, Director A stated, "I did not force the splits; rather, while guiding the student, the trainee struggled, and this happened in the process of holding his legs."
Following a complaint filed by the child's parents, the police have booked Director A on charges of child abuse and launched an investigation.
[Victim's Parent: (When I asked) how many times they did this before, they said about 11 times. They said the child ran away out of fear of having to do the splits.]
In 2024, at a Taekwondo gym in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, a gym director placed a 5-year-old child upside down between mats and left them unattended for 30 minutes, resulting in death.
Critics point out that Taekwondo gyms, which are classified as sports facilities, should also be subject to the Private Academy Act like regular cram schools to take proactive measures against child abuse.
[Kihyun, Child Abuse Attorney: There is no direct legal basis to forcibly close down a gym or suspend its operations based solely on the act of child abuse itself. There isn't one.]
As Taekwondo gyms are widely utilized facilities to fill after-school care gaps, specific complementary measures are deemed necessary to protect children.
(Video by Jihoon Yang | Video Editing by Seeun Shin | Graphics by Yeji Kim)
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