Son Academy Parents "There has never been any corporal punishment...please forgive me"
Son Academy Parents "There has never been any corporal punishment...please forgive me"
Blog Article
Parents of Son Heung-min's father, Son Woong-jung, have appealed for Son to be sentenced for alleged child abuse at the SON Soccer Academy.
■Parents "never used corporal punishment"
A group of parents who send their children to the academy released a statement today (April 4), saying, "We have spent many years at the academy, but there has never been any corporal punishment. We believe that excessive physical training is poison for children before their bones and muscles are ready, and we have never pushed them to exercise too much."
Regarding the training camp in Okinawa, Japan, where the children claimed to have been verbally abused and assaulted by Son and his coaches, "some of the parents who accompanied them to the training camp said that 'something needed to happen to change the atmosphere,'" he said.
"No one felt anything was different or unusual about what happened that day, and even the children were left wondering what the big deal was," he added.
"We are not supporting the director or saying that corporal punishment is justified," the parents said, adding, "We are just saying that those of us who were involved in the incident are being victimized and harassed by people from outside the academy who are imposing their own standards on us, as if we have committed a major crime."
■Civil society criticizes statement calling for serious investigation...calls for punishment
When it became known that Son and his coaches were accused of child abuse, civil society organizations such as the Korea Culture Federation and the People's Committee for Culture, Arts, 바카라사이트 추천 and Sports issued a joint statement calling for a strict investigation and prevention of recurrence.
The Sports Ethics Center also announced that it will conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether a center-wide investigation of the academy's leaders is necessary.
In this regard, the parents of the Son Academy said in a statement, "People called civil society organizations who have never been to the playground are criticizing the coach, whom they have never met in person, as violent, and the Sports Ethics Center, which has not given us a single glance, is threatening to raid the academy." "In fact, the children here are happy, but whose human rights are these and whose investigation are these?" they criticized.
He added, "Please think of our children who are silently moving forward today toward their dreams," and asked the investigative and judicial agencies to punish the suspects.
"The essence of the situation is leader violence," says civic organization that held the discussion
The civil society organizations that held the discussion today pointed out that the essence of the situation is violence by leaders, and that it is necessary to explore systemic alternatives to prevent it.
In particular, in response to the parents' position paper that came out just before the debate, Ham Eun-ju, Secretary General of the Sports Human Rights Institute, said, "Parents may think it's unfair enough," but added, "Nevertheless, we shouldn't let more children get hurt and accumulate red tape."
"I've seen many cases where parents of children petitioned when a leader or director was involved in a social controversy," said Jeong Hee-joon, an executive committee member of the Cultural Solidarity Alliance. "For parents, Mr. Son is a very powerful person. It's a kind of gaslighting that is often seen in the sports world."
"There was no action that was not predicated on love, so how does it make sense to say, 'I hit him because I love him. I told him not to hit him even with flowers,'" Jung said, adding, "In Europe or the United States, he would be expelled from the sports world immediately and be held legally responsible."
On March 19, the academy's children filed a complaint, claiming, "During the training camp in Okinawa, the coach hit my thigh with a corner kick stick, and coach Son also cursed me for not being able to train."
After receiving the complaint, the Gangwon National Police Agency sent three people, including Son, to the prosecutor's office in mid-April on suspicion of child abuse, and on April 2, the Chuncheon District Prosecutor's Office summoned Son for an investigation.
In response to the incident, Son said, "I swear that the academy leaders' actions were never predicated on love for children," adding, "I will reflect on the fact that I did not catch up with the changes in the times and the standards set by the law and only led the children in my own way."
"However, the facts of the complainant's allegations are different from the truth, so the academy is actively cooperating with the investigation by revealing the facts without distorting or hiding them," he added.