[Sportschosun Park Ah-ram] As controversy surrounding YouTuber Park Wi continues, questions have also been raised about his school life in the past. Former classmates who said they spent their school days with Park Wi have directly denied the claims, drawing growing attention to the facts.
On the 29th, a post appeared on an online community from a person identified as A, who said they were in the same class as Park Wi during his first year at Yongsan High School. To lend credibility to the claim, A also shared a photo showing a graduation album in which Park Wi's name could be confirmed, along with a shot of their own community account.
A claimed that Park Wi was "a student who was really far from being a delinquent."
A said that when Park Wi had been dating his girlfriend for 100 days in his first year of high school, he still could not even hold her hand and was teased by friends. A explained that although Park Wi may have seemed intimidating because of his tall height and solid build, his actual personality was polite and attentive to his friends.
In recent online comments, some users claiming to be Park Wi's high school classmates posted messages suggesting they had been victims of violence during their school years. Among them were claims such as, "I suffered injuries that required four weeks of treatment from Park Wi in my second year of high school," and "He returned to school after being released from a juvenile detention center."
In response, A said they could not find the names of the people mentioned in the comments in Yongsan High School's graduation album. A also said they had no memory of hearing at the school that Park Wi had been to a juvenile detention center or had dropped out and later returned.
A denied the allegations, saying, "If that had really happened, the entire school would have known." A also shared an anecdote involving a homeroom teacher and mentioned an instance in which Park Wi stopped other students from causing trouble around him.
Other classmates of Park Wi also offered similar testimony. One classmate said about 40 former classmates visited Park Wi when he suffered a full-body paralysis accident, adding, "He was completely unrelated to school violence or bullying."
However, it has not been confirmed whether the commenters who claimed to be victims of school bullying are actually Park Wi's former classmates. No objective evidence has been made public to support the claims involving assault or juvenile detention.
The controversy began after Park Wi released CCTV footage on the 21st showing him falling with his wheelchair while getting off a KTX-Sancheon train. As criticism grew that the video exposed an overly private moment, Park Wi deleted the footage and apologized.
The fallout continued as his subscriber count dropped and lecture appearances were canceled, while various claims about his past also spread online.
Park Wi's side has not issued a separate official statement regarding the school bullying allegations.
tokkig@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
