"Don't You Think the Students Going to School Would Be Scared?"... Criticism Over 'Wreath Parade' at Paichai High School

Singer Harim has strongly criticized the line of funeral wreaths placed in front of Paichai High School, which is currently facing disciplinary action after its baseball team shouted inappropriate slogans related to the May 18 Democratization Movement.

On his social media yesterday (July 6), Harim pointed out that "a bizarre culture has emerged where political attacks are carried out through funeral wreaths," adding that this is "a malicious intent to evoke thoughts of death and ruin the recipient's mood, and it is essentially offline comments exposed on the streets."

He continued to voice his concerns, asking, "Who sends funeral wreaths all the way to children's schools?" and added, "Regardless of who did what wrong, wouldn't the children walking through these remnants of hatred to get to school be scared and repulsed?"

Harim also criticized the support wreaths that were delivered to show support for the students of Paichai High School.

"The same goes for support wreaths sent to jump on the bandwagon of political issues," he said, adding, "Flowers are not meant to be used to strike someone."

Harim further added, "Flowers that have been weaponized to harm others are no longer flowers. Before we ourselves become accustomed to this method of hatred, I hope we can restore the minimum level of dignity to keep beautiful things beautiful."

Previously, on June 29, during the Blue Dragon National High School Baseball Championship, some players from Paichai High School shouted slogans such as "Let's go to Starbucks," which were reminiscent of the May 18 Tank Day marketing, toward the Gwangju Jeil High School dugout. As a result, they received a heavy penalty of a six-month suspension from the Korea Baseball Softball Association.

Yesterday, students, parents, and teachers from the Paichai High School baseball team visited Gwangju Jeil High School to offer an official apology and paid their respects at the May 18th National Cemetery.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Kim Hye-ju | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.