"What Did You Do Last Night?" Provocative Chants from the Start: Inside the Paichai High School Incident Report

It has been confirmed that student athletes from the Paichai High School baseball team, who sparked controversy for mocking the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, submitted incident reports claiming they were unaware that their cheers constituted hate speech.

According to the incident reports from 36 student athletes of the Paichai High School baseball team, submitted by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-min, the majority of the students claimed they did not realize terms like "Starbucks" and "Tank Day" were expressions used to disparage the democratization movement.

In their reports, the student athletes stated, "We made these remarks without knowing the historical context, but we are deeply reflecting on our actions."

Student A, who led the chant "Let's go to Starbucks," claimed the remark was intended to boost team morale.

"I was only thinking about the team atmosphere and had absolutely no intention of disparaging Gwangju," Student A wrote.

The student added, "It suddenly occurred to me that there was a controversy regarding Starbucks in Gwangju, so I used it as a rallying cry."

Student B, who shouted "Tank Day," also stated, "I just remembered that there was a 'Tank Day' event at Starbucks. I did not know it was related to the May 18 movement, nor did I know what had happened at Starbucks."

However, circumstances suggest that some student athletes were aware that the expressions were derogatory.

One Paichai High School student stated in their report, "Around the middle of the game, the chant 'Starbucks, bang-ya' (gunshot sound) came up, so I asked the other kids, 'Why is Starbucks suddenly being mentioned?'" adding, "I was told it was about the May 18 Gwangju movement, so I thought we shouldn't be doing that."

Another student wrote in their report, "I heard the talk about Starbucks, and I didn't think it was right, so I warned Student A, saying, 'Hey, this isn't right. Don't do it.'"

It was found that the mocking cheers by the Paichai High School baseball team began early in the game.

When the opposing pitcher fell, there was a provocation asking, "What did you do last night?" and it was investigated that someone shouted "Tank Day" loudly during the fourth inning.

Paichai High School has initiated disciplinary procedures, including referring Students A and B, who led the controversial cheers, to the school's disciplinary committee.

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Choi Gang-san | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.