Kim Garam Out? Why?

Kim Garam, one of the six prominent members of K-Pop girl group “Le Sserafim”, was discharged by producers and entertainment companies HYBE and Source Music. This manoeuvre was conducted due to allegations of bullying and school violence against Kim Garam during her time in middle-school. The considerable amount of hatred directed to Kim Garam personally from K-pop enthusiasts due to these accusations, only further catalysed this decision.

What are all these allegations?

Ever since the new girl-group was founded on April 4, 2022, whispers of her middle-school past across the Korean internet forums and various Twitter accounts, which subsequently revealed chunks of anecdotes and narratives of her middle-school past. Most of the details about Kim Garam’s past were leaked by her old classmates, only adding fuel to the fire online and suspicion to brew. Various unconfirmed statements had pressed that Kim Garam was, “popular in middle-school for being a same-grade school violence assailant (physical abuser).” Others have shared SNS messages uncovering that she constantly bullied underclassmen if they did not greet her, and that she had a notorious habit of smoking, drinking, and extorting classmates.

All of these claims were then outright denied by HYBE and Source Music, in April 5. They, however, defended her with claims that Garam had been a victim of both cyberbullying and school-bullying herself. In addition to that, they have taken legal action against “hoax and false information”, and denounced it as an act of defamation against a minor. Some had given the benefit of the doubt to Garam, whilst others worried for the group’s tainted reputation.

Allegedly authentic records and one of her “victims”

After a month of silence, an anonymous source, on May 15th, tipped off school records, which made evident Garam’s acts of mistreatment in middle school. A follow up to this was an allegedly authenticated version of the document; it had displayed the results of an inquiry into Garam’s bullying carried out in 2018. In this document, it stated that Garam had allegedly performed acts of obscenity - verbal abuse with extremely offensive actions and words - and harassment of multiple schoolmates. For these various actions, she was assigned a ‘degree five punishment.’ on a rate of 1 to 9.

Furthermore, Daeryun, the law firm representing Yoo Eunseo - one of the alleged victims of Garam’s bullying - released an account regarding Eunseo’s personal experience of said violence. According to Daeryun, Eunseo was a victim of Garam and her colleagues from April to May 2018, which consequently led her to move schools. She could not bear the aforementioned provocations. She reportedly fainted in dismay upon hearing news that Garam was going to join the girl-group in the near future. Retorting HYBE and Source Music’s “fraudulent comment” from April, Daeryun had issued HYBE all verified evidence, demanding an apology statement. In retaliation, HYBE doubled-down in vindication, insisting that Daeryun had falsified her biased testimony.

Ensuingly, Kim Garam’s fans have ferociously attacked Yoo Eunseo, condemning her in “maliciously slandering Garam” and is just “jealous of pretty girls”. Some of the comments proceeded to call her “ugly” and insulted her physical appearance, and an extreme few even sent her death threats. Eunseo attempted suicide shortly after.

Aftermath: what has been done after?

Although HYBE and Source Music sheltered Garam for weeks, Garam was put on an indefinite hiatus in May 20th, meaning that since then, even though Garam is not officially out of the group, Le Sserafim will continue to perform on-stage as a five-member group. Her contract was later terminated on July 20th, where Garam ceremoniously exited the group.

To the public’s surprise, Garam finally released a personal statement through an Instagram account that claimed to be a friend of Garam, on August 10th. She had rejected all imputations of violence, bullying, smoking, and drinking alcohol. Moreover, the motive of bullying Yoo Eunseo was to protect her friend from Eunseo, who had rumoured to have posted a nude picture of her friend without consent. There are no current plans of HYBE ever returning her to Le Sserafim.

The personal statement's translation is as follows:

Hello, this is Kim Garam.

I wanted to apologise first. It's too late, but I haven't had a chance to tell you my opinion.

I worked hard for my dream, so it was true that I was scared that my past actions would break my dreams. But as each day passes, many accusations toward me became more scary and I wanted to express my position honestly, if given the opportunity

1. I have never once beaten or abused anyone
2. I have never been forced to transfer
3. I have never drunk or smoked
4. I have never bullied or bullied anyone
5. I was just a regular student.

The rape incident occurred between March and May, Yoo Eun-seo uploaded a photo of her friends in their undergarments. I thought I would help the victim, but Yoo Eun-seo started swearing at me. At that time, I couldn't recognize the difference between the majority and the minority, so I couldn't make it clear that Yoo Eun-seo's actions were wrong. I thought it was loyalty to help a friend who was victimized, and I didn't know the seriousness of our actions because I did what I thought was right. Now that I look back, it was very immature and impulsive. At that time, friendship was the most important thing for me and the time with friends was the most enjoyable. At that time, my ways were different and there were many mistakes and my clumsy behavior was shown, but I don't want to hate me back then. My parents often told me not to pretend not to know your friends who need help and are in trouble. At this moment, that meaning has not changed. I'm going to try harder to make my future bright. My debut was the time I fought for my dream. 2 weeks after debut, my dream came true, but it will be remembered as a time that I will never forget in my life. I will try and work hard to be a better person and I thank my precious fans for loving and supporting me. I was able to hang on because of your constant support. I'll do my best. Thank you for reading.
10 August 2022
Kim Garam