"Broke a 7-Year-Old's Bone": The Reality of Taekwondo Gyms Falling Through Cracks [Reporting File]

A child has been injured at a Taekwondo gym once again. A 7-year-old child's femur was broken after being subjected to so-called "leg splitting." The child's parents, who initially thought it was an accident, said they were shocked after reviewing the CCTV footage in detail. This is the CCTV footage from the time secured by the reporting team. The head instructor grabs a child running around the Taekwondo gym as if snatching them. He lays the child down on the mat, grabs their legs, and forces them apart. Then, he presses down with force from above. The child writhed and sent a signal as if telling him to stop. However, he did not stop. As a result, the child's femur was broken. The femur is the thickest and strongest bone in the human body.
[Parent of the Victim Child: When the emergency room doctor saw this picture, they said that among children's bones, the femur is the thickest bone in the human body, and a child's bone would bend rather than snap cleanly like that. They said that immense force must have been applied, so child abuse is somewhat suspected.]

The child's parents looked back at the incident. They said that because the CCTV footage they saw right after the accident had a small screen and a short duration, they visited the Taekwondo gym again. That was when the "leg splitting scene" in the footage caught their eye.

[Parent of the Victim Child: At first, I thought it was a mistake. When I zoomed in and took a video, that footage was of leg splitting. I was a bit shocked at that time and talked like, "They split the legs, they split the legs..."]

Even two months later, the child was still unable to walk properly. Aged 7 internationally, the face of the child I met was bright, but their legs continued to limp.
The instructor claims that he did not force the leg splitting. He argues that an accident occurred while grabbing the legs because the child was thrashing during the teaching process. Looking at the footage from the time, the child keeps running around inside the gym, avoiding the instructor. After running away several times, the child is caught by the instructor, followed by the scene of spreading the legs and pressing down.

[Parent of the Victim Child: I asked again later. If they had split them in the past. Then they said they had them split as a punishment. When I asked how many times, they said it was done about 11 times.]

This was why the child ran around inside the gym and avoided the instructor.

[Parent of the Victim Child: They said they ran away because they were scared of getting their legs split.]

However, after being discharged from the hospital and returning to school, the child was reportedly told by friends, "I heard your leg broke because you did something wrong." Eventually, the parents filed a complaint with the police, and the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency is currently investigating the Taekwondo instructor on charges of child abuse. However, a question arose here. Who is managing Taekwondo gyms, which are frequented by many young children? A space where children flock after school and learn sports. Therefore, Taekwondo gyms are commonly thought of as hagwons (private academies). However, unlike general tutoring academies and others under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of education pursuant to the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and-Extracurricular Lessons (Hagwon Act), Taekwondo gyms are subject to the Act on the Regulation of Establishment and Utilization of Sports Facilities. They are managed by local governments, not offices of education. Although it is a space used by children, it falls under an entirely different administrative system.

[Cho Kihyun, Child Abuse Attorney: The biggest problem is that when child abuse occurs, general hagwons can face administrative dispositions from the office of education such as revocation of hagwon registration, closure, or business suspension orders, but for Taekwondo gyms, there is no direct legal basis to forcibly close or suspend the operation of the gym based solely on the child abuse act itself. There is none.]

Of course, this does not mean that Taekwondo gyms are subject to no regulations at all. Administrative dispositions pursuant to the Sports Facilities Act are possible. The problem, however, is how meticulously they are managed for children's safety.

[Cho Kihyun, Child Abuse Attorney: Practically speaking, city, county, and district offices do not properly manage and supervise them like offices of education do. Daycare centers are under the jurisdiction of child-related departments within city, county, and district offices. However, when city, county, and district offices manage Taekwondo gyms, they are managed by the sports division within the offices...]

Two months later, the child is still using a wheelchair. Taekwondo gyms are places where many children spend their after-school hours. They are also places where parents entrust their children with peace of mind. Then, are the standards for protecting children as sufficient as the teaching of them? This incident makes us look back at those standards.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.