영한대역 Graduation hazing gets out of hand for some

[Daniel]

Graduation hazing gets out of hand for some

속옷마저 벗기고 사진까지 … “일탈 아닌 범죄”

February 16, 2010

	Half-naked middle school students streaked for over two hours as a ritual after their graduation ceremony on Wednesday in downtown Cheongju, North Chungcheong. [NEWSIS]

A graduation ritual involving middle schools across the country has apparently gotten out of hand, at least according to photos of naked or half-naked students posted on the Web. Following the postings, police have stepped in to try to sort things out.

Some 40 pictures displaying naked male and female middle school graduating students in Goyang, Gyeonggi, began to spread quickly online starting at 3 a.m. last Saturday.

One picture depicts middle school graduates making a human pyramid with their bodies covered only by flour and eggs. Other photos show students standing still and covering their private parts or removing underwear. Certain high school students wearing surgical masks and rain coats appear to be enjoying the scenes. They are depicted throwing flour or taking pictures.

The Ilsan Police Precinct said yesterday that 20 high school students, 10 males and 10 females, who graduated from the middle school in Goyang, allegedly pressured 15 graduates - eight males and seven females - of the same middle school to gather in an empty lot near the school after the main graduation ceremony.

Those subject to the hazing had received text messages from the older students telling them to attend the ritual after the graduation ceremony and were afraid of getting punished if they didn’t do as they were told, police said. Statements were made by seven of the victims, said investigators. “Since those photos are spreading very fast on the Web, we are concerned that victims could suffer more in the future,” said an officer who asked not to be named. The precinct is planning to question the remaining eight victims today. After they talk with the 15, police will question all 20 high schoolers who were allegedly involved, the officer said.

“We have confirmed identifications of all 20 and I don’t think the investigation into those high school students will take long,” said the officer. “Offenders can get criminal punishments since they are charged with an attempted act of violence.” The officer added that investigators are considering also prosecuting a suspect who allegedly uploaded the photos.

“In the past, graduates threw flour on each other after middle and high school graduation ceremonies,” said Kim Mun-cho, a sociology professor at Korea University in northern Seoul. “Such action symbolized escaping from suppression and confinement since the society itself was so controlled at the time,” Kim continued. “As we enter an open and free society, students tend to express themselves in radical ways in order to show off.”

Sociology professor Shin Jin-wook at Chung-Ang University in Seoul said that “the case in Goyang represents physical and mental assault that go beyond past symbolic gestures of being liberated and escaping suppression in school years.”

Last Wednesday on a beach in Busan, some 30 male and female middle school students either wearing underwear or torn school uniforms showered each other with flour and eggs in front of other people on their graduation day. The disturbance went on despite the police’s order to stop.

The same day at around 7 p.m. in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, about 20 male middle school graduates walked rainy streets only in underwear.


By Song Ji-hye, Lee Min-yong [smartpower@joongang.co.kr]

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잇따른 졸업식 ‘알몸 뒤풀이’



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