Alumni plead for leniency for high school banned over baseball trash talk
Kim Dong-yeon, center, head of the alumni association for Pai Chai High School, reads a petition at the Korea Baseball and Softball Association headquarters in Seoul, Friday, seeking leniency for the Pai Chai High School students over trash-talking an opponent from Gwangju by mocking the May 18 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising. Yonhap
Alumni for a Seoul high school whose baseball team has been suspended over insensitive trash talk pleaded for leniency on Friday.
In a statement, the alumni association for Pai Chai High School asked the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) to reconsider its recent six-month suspension on the school's baseball team.
The team's players were banned for mocking their opponents from Gwangju Jeil High School, based in the southern city of Gwangju, during their first-round game at the Cheongryonggi National High School Baseball Championship on Monday. It is the country's oldest and biggest high school baseball tournament.
Some Pai Chai players were heard yelling toward the Gwangju Jeil dugout, "Let's go to Starbucks!" and "Tank Day!"
These were in reference to a controversial promotion by Starbucks Korea on May 18, the anniversary of the Gwangju pro-democracy uprising.
The campaign offered discounts on "Tank" tumbler sets with the phrase, "Put it on the table with a sound of 'Tak!'" Starbucks Korea was widely criticized for mocking the democratization movement, as the word "tank" evoked memories of the military's violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators during the Gwangju uprising.
The word "tak" also drew criticism because it reminded some people of student activist Park Jong-cheol, whose death under police torture in 1987 became a symbol of Korea's democratization movement.
The six-month ban took effect immediately, and the remaining games for Pai Chai at the Cheongryonggi tournament will be forfeited. Sitting out the ongoing tournament can be a massive blow to Pai Chai seniors' chances of getting selected at the upcoming draft for the Korea Baseball Organization.
While apologizing for the young athletes' behavior, the alumni association pointed out they are still in the process of growing and learning.
"We believe it is important to give these young students a chance to learn from their mistakes and become better people," the association's statement read. "We are making this appeal from the perspectives of parents. We ask you to please consider these students' futures. We hope that you will find it in your heart to show mercy so that these students can learn from this experience and grow into more mature men."
The association added that it will do its best to prevent recurrences of incidents of this nature.
After announcing its ban on the school, the KBSA said it will later have separate disciplinary proceedings to determine any penalties for Pai Chai's coaches and individual players.
Kim Dong-yeon, head of the alumni association, said alumni had considered holding a press conference in front of the KBSA headquarters in Seoul but decided against it after parents of the school's baseball players opposed the idea.
According to Kim, those parents also did not want to be part of the statement seeking leniency.
"The parents said an apology had to precede everything else and any action by the alumni association would risk distorting their true intent," Kim told reporters. "I am not in a position to determine the severity of the suspension. But as head of the alumni association, I felt it was only the right thing to do for us to ask for leniency."
Kim added that as wrong as the players' action was, some adults must also hold themselves accountable for the incident.
Another alumnus surnamed Kim, who asked his given name be withheld, said the KBSA went too far in punishing the team so quickly.
"First, there should have been an opportunity to educate these athletes that they must not engage in such behavior or they may face punishment," he said. "To penalize the team without going through that process is not something educators should have done."