As rumors spread online claiming that internet broadcaster Park Wi (39), who runs the YouTube channel "Weracle," was involved in school violence and spent time in a juvenile detention center during his school days, one internet user claiming to be his high school classmate has stepped forward to refute the allegations by sharing a graduation album.

On August 21, Park uploaded CCTV footage to his YouTube channel showing an accident where he got caught on a social service worker's foot while using the KTX and fell onto the platform, which instead drew critical public backlash. Park deleted the video and apologized, but the fallout has not subsided.

Following this controversy, groundless rumors of unclear origin emerged one after another online.

One of them was the claim that Park went to a juvenile detention center due to school violence during his high school years. The rumor alleged that Park inflicted injuries on another student during his enrollment, causing the victim to be diagnosed with a four-week recovery period, and that he returned to school after spending time in a juvenile detention center following the incident.

In response, on August 30, a rebuttal post was uploaded to an online community by a person identified as A, who claimed to be a member of the 57th graduating class of Seoul Yongsan High School, the same school Park attended. A stated that he was in the same class as Park during the first year of high school, and although they interacted less starting from the second year when classes were divided into liberal arts and science tracks, they played soccer together every week during club activities.

A claimed that the names "Gu OO" and "Song OO," mentioned as victims in the initial rumor post, do not appear in the graduation album. "No matter how much I look through the graduation album, those two names do not show up," A said, adding, "It is a maliciously spread falsehood." Regarding rumors of juvenile detention, voluntary withdrawal, and reinstatement, A refuted them by saying, "I have never heard of such a thing. If something like that had happened, the entire school would have known."

Furthermore, A described Park by saying, "Because of his tall height and physical build, students in the same class were nervous at the beginning of admission, thinking he might be a bully, but his actual personality was the complete opposite. Friends liked Park for his pure and polite demeanor." A added, "He studied hard and was good at sports, leaving a positive influence on his classmates. I have never once seen Park bully or tease anyone."

A, who wrote the post, stated, "I have no intention of defending Park regarding criticisms that he behaved rudely toward KTX staff or that his lecture fees are excessively high." However, A added, "From the perspective of someone who observed Park closely during our school days, I wrote this post to let people know that the school violence allegations are not true."

(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)