Timeline of events from 2018 - 2024.
Compilation of details documented in the school violence report, formal statements and chat logs posted by involved parties.
Key People and Entities
Kim Garam - subject of bullying allegations
Yoo Eunseo - accuser
Yudimi - Kim Garam's friend, alleged victim of Yoo Eunseo's bullying
Hybe/Source Music - Garam's former talent agency or company
Daeryun Law - Yoo Eunseo's legal counsel
2018 MARCH-MAY
##: Kim Garam and Yoo Eunseo, along with eight others, formed a friend group and enter grade 1 at Gyeongin Middle School together
##: Garam found out Eunseo bad-mouthed her and some friends behind their backs so they confronted Eunseo while on a school retreat at a nearby apartment complex. They argued for three hours but reconciled.
##: Eunseo told some male friends about the confrontation and the male friends threatened Garam with physical assault. Garam cut ties with Eunseo after this incident.
##: Eunseo took a picture of Garam’s friend “D” (Hybe's statement), known as Female Student 3 in the SVC summary, while D was changing and in her underwear. Eunseo published the picture onto Female Student 1’s Facebook account as the profile picture.
##: Eunseo admitted to uploading the photo in writing.
##: Garam called and sent threatening texts to Eunseo demanding an apology for uploading the invasive photograph after Friend D cried to her about the incident. Eventually, Garam and four of her friends confronted Eunseo and Eunseo agreed to post an apology on Facebook.
##: The apology was not sufficient as Friend D was in discussions with the school to take action against Eunseo and Eunseo ended up voluntarily transferring schools.
May 23: Eunseo transferred schools "due to a series of incidents, such as hacking someone else’s Facebook account and uploading pictures of another student wearing only their underwear."
2018 JUNE
04: Despite having transferred for her own wrongdoing, Eunseo requested a School Violence Committee hearing for the threatening text messages she received from Garam. Garam and Female Student 1 were named as perpetrators.
##: Garam and Female Student 1 were punished for swearing and sending threatening messages. They received six hours of special education under Article 17-1-5 of the School Violence Prevention and Countermeasures Act.
##: Eunseo received counseling in accordance with Article 16-1-1 of the School Violence Prevention and Countermeasures Act, as the named victim.
##: It is speculated that Eunseo was named “Perpetrator Student” in a School Violence Committee record of her own for the photo incident and received a no.6 disposition, suspension of attendance. She carried out her punishment at the school she transferred to in the province.
##: Eunseo transferred schools, again, to a neighboring school near Gyeongin.
##: Garam became the subject of many vicious rumors; one of them being that she injured a classmate by throwing a flowerpot at their head. She received a direct apology from the perpetrator of the rumor after a teacher intervened.
Text messages seemingly showing a classmate relaying rumors to Garam:
##: Garam and her friends also became victims of cyberbullying. They were forced into group chats where their classmates and students from another school, who were complete strangers to them, harassed and cursed at them. A teacher also intervened to resolve this matter.
2020
Kim Garam is accepted into School of the Performing Arts - Seoul (SOPA) despite her school violence record.
2022 APRIL
##: Le Sserafim, “HYBE’s First Girl Group,” is to debut under their sub label Source Music and Kim Garam is previewed in the lineup.
##: Anonymous posts about Kim Garam being a school bully are uploaded onto numerous portals and social media. The allegations against her include:
Throwing a flower pot at someone’s head and sending them to the hospital • Smoking • Being a part of her middle school’s “thug” (iljin) clique • Being a sexual deviant because she took pictures next to some drawings of genitalia and making lewd gestures • Wanting to be intimate with BTS Kim Taehyung • Being so violent that a School Violence Committee was opened against her • Being a Starship trainee, but did not make the final lineup for IVE • Badmouthing IVE • Talking back to her seniors • Making her teachers kneel • Throwing shopping bags at people • Psychological abuse of classmates • Arriving to school in a police car • Being forced to transfer because she was a bully at a previous school
##: Garam’s friends, notably a friend named Yudimi (alias), were doxxed for being in personal pictures belonging to Garam that were spread on the internet. Yudimi began receiving online harassment when unidentified people found her personal social media accounts and accused her of being a part of Garam’s alleged iljin group. (It must be noted that there were no pictures depicting Garam or any of her friends committing any violence.)
##: Former classmates of Garam and Eunseo saw these allegations and thought Eunseo authored the posts. They called her out by her real name in the comment sections. Some Le Sserafim fans noticed this and tracked down Eunseo on her personal social media accounts to harass her. Per Eunseo's statement:
Perhaps it’s because Yoo Eunseo was a victim at the hands of Kim Garam, that there was a comment made that it was Yoo Eunseo who made the post exposing Kim Garam as the perpetrator, but Yoo Eunseo was receiving messages through her social media accounts saying that she is maliciously slandering Kim Garam or that she is an orc who was just jealous of pretty girls. More comments such as ‘Everything [on her face] was redone, but she’s still ugly,’ ‘She’s slandering cause she’s jealous,’ were also received. But worse, some messages and posts even shared photos of Yoo Eunseo, blurring her out and threatening her with the message ‘Thanks for taking care of the mosaic. If you stalk LE SSERAFIM, you better get your grave ready.
06: HYBE/Source Music released a statement saying they are taking legal action against the perpetrators of the slanderous allegations and that, through an investigation and a third-party confirmation, Garam was actually a victim of bullying during middle school. (First statement)
15: Garam scanned her school violence committee report, presumably because she wanted to reveal the truth herself.
##: Yoo Eunseo hired Daeryun Law Firm. Daeryun Law sent HYBE certified mail with Yoo Eunseo’s petition against Garam, the results of the School Violence Committee (SVC) report and asked HYBE to retract their statement that Garam was a victim and make a public apology.
20: Daeryun Law’s certified mail was delivered to HYBE offices.
##: Daeryun Law also filed criminal charges against the people who harassed and threatened to dox Eunseo online.
2022 MAY
02: At Le Sserafim’s debut showcase, Garam was asked about the bullying rumors and responded by saying she cannot speak on them at this time. Group leader Kim Chaewon interjected saying they will make a definite statement clarifying all the details in the future as they are “handling the matter in accordance to procedures.”
15: Yudimi shared the frustration of being harassed online due to the anonymous posts that painted her and Garam as school bullies. She said she will gather evidence in her possession, as a victim, and from other victims, as well, to clear Garam’s name. Yudimi explicitly said the bullies are actually the people behind the anonymous accounts that started the rumors and she will reveal the truth despite their earlier threats to sue her.
15: An image uploaded onto a burner Twitter account showed the header of what looks to be a School Violence Committee report. Kim Garam is identified as the perpetrator with the rest of text reading: “We are informing you of the action that we will be taking in accordance with Articles 16 and 17 of the Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools.” The translation led many people to believe Garam bullied a disabled student and received a restraining order without knowing what Articles 16 and 17 entails.
16: HYBE/Source Music responded with a comment saying they are maintaining their original position that Garam was a victim of bullying and they will let the legal process sort out the details.
16: Gyeongin Middle School was asked to state their position to which they replied, “No comment.”
19: Yoo Eunseo came forward as an alleged victim of Garam’s bullying, she is represented by Daeryun Law. In their statement, Daeryun Law claimed:
Yoo Eunseo attempted to end her life due to the harassment she received from the group’s fans when HYBE defended Garam.
HYBE maintaining Garam is a victim of bullying, while the authenticity of the SVC report was being debated, forced Yoo Eunseo and her family to come forward to confirm the SVC report and Kim Garam’s No. 5 punishment. They wanted to ease Eunseo’s suffering by correcting HYBE’s position.
Garam and Eunseo received punishment and protection accordance to Articles 17-1-5 and 16-1-1, respectively–which, subsequently, debunked the rumor that Garam received a restraining order for bullying a disabled classmate
They will reveal the full contents of the SVC report, and more, if HYBE does not retract the claim that Garam was a victim and apologize.
##: After Yoo Eunseo and her legal counsel confirmed the SVC report and Garam's No. 5 punishment, many people took it to mean Garam committed severe physical assault against the her by looking at other SVC cases and their penalty outcomes to compare. Meanwhile, physical violence was never referenced in Yoo Eunseo's official statement.
20: HYBE claimed Daeryun Law is telling half-truths. In their detailed statement, HYBE revealed that Yoo Eunseo and her friends bullied Garam, in addition to the illegal photography incident that resulted in the SVC. HYBE also claimed the SVC report documented the illegal photography by Eunseo.
Additionally, HYBE debunked the extensive allegations against Garam from the anonymous posters during pre-debut and said they have witnesses and evidence to support their position, once again reaffirming that legal action is in progress.
HYBE concluded their statement by announcing Kim Garam will be on hiatus for her mental health.
20: An official from the Ministry of Education acknowledged the validity of the SVC document that named Kim Garam as the perpetrator. He commented on the “autonomous” nature of the school violence committee deliberations.
In this regard, an official from the Ministry of Education said, "In the case of school violence, the intensity of the measures taken by each school is also different because of the strong autonomous nature and the different tendencies of the participating experts [in these committees].""However, it seems to be true that there was school violence, as Kim Garam was named as an assailant student."
##: Many people disregarded the broad terms the official used and interpreted the statement as confirmation that Garam committed physical assault.
20: HYBE spoked to a media outlet and addressed the skepticism over their claim that Garam did not commit any physical violence in their statement because of reported cases where the assailant received measure no.4 or no.5 after committing physical assault. HYBE echoed the same sentiment as the official.
As far as we are aware, school violence committees are held differently depending on the matter, the school, the district, and the members, as they are not courts of law.
22: Yudimi directed people who follow her on Instagram to her Asked.kr account for a Q & A. She confirmed everything said in HYBE/Source Music’s statement is true, that she handed her evidence over to the company and talked about Garam’s No. 5 punishment having nothing to do with physical assault.
##: The Korean Ministry of Education website's rubric for a school violence committee panel apparently confirms that a disposition no. 5 (and no. 2) is exempt from judgment of "severity" in the assessment of school violence cases:
23: A media outlet asked Daeryun Law for a followup after HYBE did not concede to their request for a statement retraction and apology, and Daeryun Law said they are in discussion towards a solution with HYBE.
2022 JULY
19: Source Music announced it terminated Kim Garam’s contract and Le Sserafim will continue as a five-member group. No further explanation.
20: Yudimi called out HYBE and Source Music on her Instagram stories for using Garam as a “noise marketing tool” and throwing her away rather than clearing Garam’s name with the evidence that was collected and handed over. Yudimi revealed that Yoo Eunseo was a bully with many victims, including herself, and that Eunseo was punished with a No. 6 measure from a School Violence Committee. K-media outlets Kyunghyang Shinmun, TopStarNews and Wikitree picked up on the stories.
21: Yudimi uploaded a screenshot of Eunseo revealing in a private message that she missed class due to her No. 6 disposition (suspension). The message suggested that she received it as a result of the school violence committee deliberation for the photograph incident. The punishment followed her despite her trying to evade the record by transferring schools. Yudimi alleged HYBE knew about Yoo Eunseo’s No. 6 punishment and obliged Eunseo’s request to not publicize it.
2022 AUGUST
10: Garam released the minutes of her School Violence Committee report, as well as some scans of the actual report via Yudimi’s Instagram. She also made her first statement regarding the matter, re-affirming that she never abused nor outcast anyone–only employing immature tactics to help a friend who was in need–and she thanked her fans for supporting her. Naver reported on the revelations.
11: Yudimi revealed that Garam and Eunseo actually reconciled through a mutual friend after the events of the School Violence Committee, before Garam's debut in Le Sserafim.
2024 OCTOBER
##: During an audit of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee at the National Assembly, HYBE was found to be circulating an internal "trend review" document that disparaged artists within and outside of the company. In a blurb evaluating LE SSERAFIM dated April 6, 2022, Yudimi's claim that HYBE was using Garam for noise marketing appeared to be confirmed.
