[Herald Muse]
[Herald Muse]

A Seoul court has upheld the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's finding that Hyun Joo-yeop, a former professional basketball player turned broadcaster, left his post without authorization while serving as head coach of the Whimoon High School basketball team.

The Seoul Administrative Court's Second Administrative Division, presided over by Chief Judge Gong Hyeon-jin, ruled Thursday partly in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Whimoon Uisuk — the foundation that operates Whimoon High School — against the Seoul superintendent of education, seeking to overturn audit-based disciplinary demands.

The case was triggered in early 2024 when a parent at Whimoon High School filed a petition alleging that Hyun had neglected his coaching duties to pursue broadcasting activities, including mukbang filming.

The education office launched an audit of the school and, in July of that year, notified it of disciplinary demands — including a salary reduction for Hyun, suspension for the principal, and reprimands for the vice principal, teachers and the administrative director.

Beyond Hyun's unauthorized absences, the education office had also cited improper payment of coaching staff wages by the school and its officials, inadequate management of student athletes, and mishandling of contract procedures.

The court found that the grounds for disciplining Hyun were valid.

It determined that Hyun had left his post without prior authorization on 18 occasions for broadcasting shoots — instances when he should have used tardiness, early-leave, outing or annual-leave procedures — thereby neglecting his core duties as a sports team coach.

The court also found that Whimoon High School had violated relevant law by hiring replacement staff to cover Hyun's coaching role during his broadcasting activities from November 2023 to February 2024 without proper recruitment procedures or compensation. The school had also been negligent in conducting athlete human-rights education and maintaining training logs.

However, the court ruled that imposing administrative and financial sanctions on the school on those same grounds violated the principle of proportionality. The education office had previously notified the school's athletics program of a one-year ban on transferring in student athletes with sports talent designations, a restriction on training camps lasting more than 10 days, and exclusion from winter and summer special training subsidies for one year.

The court cited the significant damage a one-year transfer ban would inflict on the team's competitiveness — and on current student athletes — as well as the difficulty of achieving meaningful training results under the restricted camp schedule.

"Imposing all at once a set of measures that could seriously disrupt the operation of the athletics program places a burden on the private interests of the school, students and parents that outweighs the public benefit gained," the court said.

The court also overturned disciplinary demands against two school officials stemming from allegations of improper handling of a sculpture installation contract and a cafeteria supply contract, finding that the grounds for those charges did not hold up.


min3654@heraldcorp.com