Because their private lives are none of my business, I don’t blog about their media controversies and love affairs. However, I’m bringing up the recent “scandal” of Lee Shin Young, the actor who played the Handsome Soldier, because I was bothered about one thing.

Briefly, on February 2, an article appeared on Nate accusing him of bullying in middle school.  Now, remember what I said about the portal site Nate as compared to Naver, right? Naver is the more reliable one.

Anyway, this translation is from dailynaver.blogspot.com.

Article: [Issue] ‘Crash Landing on You’ star Lee Shin Young under suspicion of being a school bully…”he’s an iljin who’s name not one person in the area didn’t know”

Source: Top Star News via Nate

A netizen is alleging that Lee Shin Young bullied him in the past.

Recently, an article was published in an online community where the writer alleged, “I’m from the same middle school as an actor from ‘Crash Landing on You’ that was an iljin in the past. This actor committed a number of school offenses by gathering classmates and committing gang violence in the classroom.”

The writer added, “He was famous in the area. There’s not one person in town that didn’t know his name. He erased his identity after high school but my friend experienced bullying by him personally.”

“There are people saying that they went to the same middle school and high schools and never heard of it arguing that it must’ve been someone else around me. I will post the voice statements of the victims, the self-written statements of those who helped me and I will also share what I experienced to Lee Shin Young’s actor friends.”

He then shared additional photos and graduation photos of Lee Shin Young who had claimed to be a model in high school.

Lee Shin Young’s side has yet to reveal their official position on the issue.

source: https://dailynaver.blogspot.com/2020/02/netizen-alleges-that-crash-landing-on.html

After Lee Shin Young’s company investigated the report, it issued a statement, on February 4, denying the incident. This is the translation from soompi.

This is actor Lee Shin Young’s agency, Forest Entertainment.

We would like to comment on some of the posts about actor Lee Shin Young on the online anonymous community.

As his agency, we checked the content of what was written on the anonymous community with people including his family and friends to find out the exact situation.

As a result of our confirmation, he has never been involved in anything related to the content written on the anonymous community. However, if anyone was hurt by reckless words and actions in middle school, he would like to apologize to them.

We would also like to relay apologies to the senior actors and production crew who are working hard in the cold for the drama [who are affected by] our actor’s behavior during his immature days..

In addition, please refrain from malicious slander and spreading of false information. We would like to announce that we will take legal action for all spreading of false information. Once again, we apologize to those who were affected.

source: https://www.soompi.com/article/1381022wpp/crash-landing-on-you-actor-lee-shin-youngs-agency-responds-to-rumors-of-past-bullying

After the company’s statement, the individual who instigated the online rumor issued a retraction and apology.

I just saw the situation while passing by, so I didn’t know for sure. A lot of time has passed, so I also don’t remember completely. Thinking back on my memory, I think Shin Young wasn’t there. I may have seen incorrectly because of someone who was of a similar height and size as Shin Young.

The assault case also, I think I mistakenly thought Shin Young had hit because I didn’t see carefully when they were conversing. I also don’t remember this well because it was a long time ago, so my memory has been distorted. I am very sorry to Shin Young for causing a misunderstanding and harm to him due to a post about something I wasn’t sure about, and I feel regretful.

source: https://dailynaver.blogspot.com/2020/02/netizen-who-alleged-bullying-by-lee.html

Then the friend who was allegedly bullied, issued his own clarification.

I was friends with Shin Young in my first year of middle school. We did not have a major fight outside, but we argued a bit over the phone. The next day, we had a bit of a fist fight at school. That is all, and it was resolved well without any major incidents. I don’t have any hard feelings about this.

source: https://dailynaver.blogspot.com/2020/02/netizen-who-alleged-bullying-by-lee.html

As to be expected in times like this, many netizens rushed to judge Lee Shin Young, and they demanded his removal from CLoY. Even after the retractions, some of them insinuated that the actor’s company paid off the former schoolmates.

Now, this special brand of cynicism is their problem. I can’t do anything about that –except perhaps to suggest kissing a pig. haha.

However, for the bitches of this blog, I hope that this incident will remind us to hold off condemning people until information is gathered. Eventually, cooler heads will prevail.

What disturbed me about this rumormongering is that people overlooked that middle school children were involved. I wiki’ed this: middle school students are between the (Western) ages of 13 to 15. In other words, this fight was between minors.

I don’t know anything about the Korea legal system, but here in the US, fights on school property (note: the 2nd individual claimed that they fought in school) are often handled internally by the school administrators. These are fights that result with minimal physical injury and/or property damage. The school principal can determine the penalty which includes reprimand, community service hours, detention, suspension, and even expulsion in extreme cases.

However, when fights are more violent, thus requiring police intervention, or when a party threatens legal action, the case will go to juvenile court. Now, juvenile proceedings have very strict confidentiality rules. Why?

For one, the law understands that minors are involved, and that their rehabilitation is of paramount concern. The sooner the juvenile defendant can admit guilt and apologize, the sooner his/her rehabilitation process can begin. With the confidentiality rules, the juvenile becomes less inhibited to confess.

For another, minors are not yet capable like adults of making mature and rational decisions. Without the confidentiality rules, the public opprobrium and media scrutiny will stigmatize them and hamper their chances of a successful rehabilitation. The law understands that after they have served out their “time,” they still have a long future ahead of them. They will want to pursue higher education, have a career, be gainfully employed, have families, and become a normal human without the Scarlet Letters (“JD” for juvenile delinquent) on their foreheads. Their juvenile delinquency records will be sealed and/or expunged.

Now, do you see why I find the some of the netizens’ reactions deplorable?

It’s because of people like them that the strict confidentiality rules have been set in place. They do not understand what the law understands…and shields.

If Lee Shin Young was in fact involved in a physical altercation, he and the person(s) involved were minors at that time. If he has improved his life since then, then good for him.

My two cents.

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Note: I know a few of you, my lurkers and readers, post my blog on twitter, facebook, Instagram and other social media (Russian, too? Is that you @plapla from soompi?) Thanks. I don’t have FB; I’m seldom on twitter and I forgot my instagram password.

However, kindly do NOT repost this commentary elsewhere. Thanks.

I don’t have time and patience to deal with either LSY’s fans or anti-fans. 🙂 All newbies to this post/thread will be blocked.