The Central District Police Station in Ulsan Friday booked eight high school girls without detention for bullying middle school students and taking their pocket money.

According to police, the bullies threatened a total of 20 middle school students and demanded 600,000 won, 30,000 won from each. One of the booked students, identified by her surname, Kim, blackmailed the victims, threatening to pelt them with flour or eggs to spoil their graduation day.

An informal graduation day ritual, which is now fast disappearing, has seniors throwing flour or eggs at the graduating students or graduating students tearing their school uniforms.

The young students collected only 138,000 won among themselves and, when they handed the collection to the bullies, the older students got angry.

The high school girls showed up at the school on graduation day and threw eggs at and poured flour on them. Kim and her friends were quoted as telling police that they needed the money to buy pizza and for karaoke.

The case comes at a time when there is an outcry over a videotaped bullying case in which a group of female students beat up younger pupils on a street corner near their school. The tape was posted on YouTube but was pulled after a public outcry.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr