Kyungbock High School has released an apology to aespa following the events at the group’s attendance of the school’s ceremony.
Earlier, aespa were in attendance at Kyungbock High School’s 101st anniversary celebration and performed their hit songs for the students. However, their appearance was mired in controversy as some of the attendees were seen uploading sexually harassing posts on social media and security was lax at best.
On the school’s community board, a representative for Kyungbock High School posted an apology directed towards aespa, but also attempted to clarify some of the events that happened. The apology has since been deleted though.
Today, a celebration for the 101st anniversary of the school was held by the Kyungbock Alumni Association at our auditorium. Idol group aespa was invited to perform at the ceremony. However, after the event, there were reports and events that unilaterally damaged both aespa and SM Entertainment’s reputation, so we would like to apologize first.
However, as a result of conducting an in-school survey of our students following the media reports, it was determined that some outsiders who are not affiliated with our school visited the venue and we did not allow them to enter for security reasons. Thus, we can infer that the malicious comments that were posted on the internet are not true.
However, after today’s event, we would once again apologize to SM Entertainment and aespa for damaging their reputation.
— Kyungbock High School’s Kim Jeong Ryul
Kim Jeong Ryul is the name of a staff member in the science department at the high school who has posted various notices before regarding COVID-19 precautions, so the statement was very likely posted by a legitimate staff member, not a student pretending to be a staff member.
It was then discovered by netizens that the text message that Kyungbock High School sent out before their apology even requested all students to delete any social media posts they made regarding aespa. The text message is shared below.
<Emergency notice – request to delete all contents related to aespa’s performance>
There was a performance by aespa for Kyungbock High School’s 101st anniversary. However, there are suggestive photos, videos, and posts made on our students’ SNS accounts. This is a situation where we could be held legally responsible. We would like you all to immediately delete all posts and contents uploaded online relating to their performance.
If this escalates to the press, the ministry of education will receive many complaints.
Parents, please guide your students to do as stated.
— Kyungbock High School
Due to the wording of the apology combined with the text message sent out, especially the line where the school said they can “infer the malicious comments are not true,” many netizens believe the apology is not sincere.
The standards of Kyungbock High students, tsk tsk.
The school should be the ones to stop this. [The students] aren’t beasts yet they can’t control them.
— @4438910I
- “We can infer lol”
- “But they uploaded it on their own IDs..??”
- “What… lmao”
- “So in the end it’s fake? lololol”
- “Change the title. That’s an apology? A student there wrote that, are you trying to get caught?”
Kyungbock High School’s apology is so insincere lmao
— @by_beep
The school has not yet released an updated statement, and SM Entertainment has not yet commented on the matter.
