A post on the anonymous workplace community app Blind by a mother who says her 6-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a 7-year-old boy at a jump rope hagwon in Gyeonggi Province. [Blind capture]
A post on the anonymous workplace community app Blind by a mother who says her 6-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a 7-year-old boy at a jump rope hagwon in Gyeonggi Province. [Blind capture]

Claims that a 7-year-old boy repeatedly sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl at a jump rope hagwon in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, are stirring controversy — made worse by the boy's parents reportedly insisting the girl had "consented."

On Monday, a post titled "The 7-year-old sexual assault and secondary victimization case at a Pangyo jump rope hagwon" appeared on Blind, an anonymous online community for office workers.

The author, identified as the parent of the victim and referred to as A, said she learned of the incident on the evening of July 14, when her 6-year-old daughter told her that "an oppa at the jump rope hagwon told me not to wear undershorts."

When A pressed her daughter for details, the girl said "oppa lifted my undershorts and underwear and looked inside, and also touched me," according to the post.

A then asked the hagwon to verify the facts and was told that the boy had acknowledged most of the described behavior, except for the touching.

However, the boy's parents offered a series of explanations: that he had asked the girls whether he could lift their skirts and they had said "yes"; that it was a game he played with his older sister; that he was trying to check whether the child was still in diapers; and that he was simply curious whether she was wearing "flower-print underwear" and had not intended to touch her.

A said she had initially considered the possibility that it was just children playing around, but changed her mind completely after the hagwon sent her CCTV footage of the incident.

"The moment I watched the video, my body was shaking with shock," she said. "He cornered the child, sat on her bottom, lifted her skirt himself, frantically looked around, bent his head down to look inside, and moved his hand. After watching the footage, I concluded I absolutely had to speak directly with the other child's parents."

She said that while reviewing additional footage, she also discovered that her second daughter, who is 5 years old, had suffered similar abuse.

A's family attempted to open a dialogue with the boy's parents, but the two sides could not narrow their differences.

A's husband said: "We do not want our two daughters to encounter the offending child anymore. The primary harm has already been done and we cannot undo that, but preventing secondary harm is what matters to us now, and we told the boy's parents we will do whatever it takes to stop it."

A's family also expressed concern about the possibility of the children being assigned to the same elementary school in the future.

The boy's parents, however, reportedly pushed back, saying they could not move away and that their son "is at a level where he can be reformed." They added: "The underwear was accidentally lifted along with the skirt and it was only a brush of skin. It's not as if he inserted a finger."

A ultimately requested access to additional CCTV footage and said she confirmed evidence of five more similar incidents of alleged assault.

"At first I thought it had happened only once, but watching the CCTV made me suspect it was a pattern," she said. "The additional footage was also shared with the other child's parents. I expected them to realize this was not a small matter — but they did not." She said that reaction led her to go public with the case.

A said she plans to pursue every available legal avenue, including a police complaint and a civil lawsuit. "Wrong behavior deserves to be condemned, and I believe it must be punished — even if the law cannot reach it," she said.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com