Bullying: Trying to Turn Back Time

This year, Jihwan Lee will graduate from a Korea middle school. What some may find unusual about his graduation is that Jihwan Lee is 19. There are several reasons behind this delay; he transferred school five times in six years and used his books as pillows, instead of tools for knowledge.  In 2004, when he was in 6^th grade, Jihwan moved to Busan, where he joined a gang. It is therefore not surprising that he became involved in bullying and violence, which would eventually become an uncontrollable nightmare.

“I thought that it is cool to swear in front of friends and teachers. If I wanted something, I stole it because I could; I thought that I was really cool,” said Jihwan. At first his teachers tried to intervene, but once they saw him kicking over desks and throwing chairs, they began leaving him alone to avoid his anger. No one could stop him; the school was in a lower income neighborhood where Jihwan’s gang held more power than the local police. Once they realized that Jihwan’s violence was uncontainable, some of his classmates transferred to other schools because they were scared that they would become his next target. “I felt like I was God because most of my classmates feared me. I loved the rush of power that I felt whenever I passed by a teacher who couldn’t look at me.”

When the local police did manage to accost Jihwan, they were hesitant to punish him because of his gang affiliation. “Whenever a police officer started yelling at me, one of his coworkers would take him aside and tell him who I was. When he came back, he wouldn’t be able to look at me, just like everybody else”. Jihwan looks back at these encounters with mixed feelings; while he regrets his actions, he wonders why a community of mature adults was unable to stop him.

The year that Mr. Lee became an 8^th grader, his school administration decided to expel him. After three years of street life, he realized that the pleasure of the present guaranteed a hopeless future. “One day, I met an old man on the street. When I told him to give me his wallet, he told me that he only had a credit card, but that he would buy me lunch. As we ate, he told me about his family and his life, and at the end of the meal, his daughter came to pick him up. There was so much love in her eyes; I wanted someone to look at me like that, too. So I asked my school to take me back. They looked at me uncertainly at first, but when I begged them to give me a second chance, they agreed.” Rejoining the 8^th grade, Jihwan became the class president and studied hard, going to his teachers for after school help. While he was not the most academically brilliant student, his classmates and teachers respect him for the advice that he offers, and the responsibility he shows towards his school. “I don’t know if my teachers still remember me as a gangster. I don’t even know if I was voted as the class president because people like me, or because they were scared not to. While scientists tell me that I can never turn back time, I can try to change the previous image that people have of me!”

I asked Jihwan why he enjoyed making people too scared to look at him. He replied, “When I was young, my parents were divorced, and everyone looked at me with either contempt, or pity, or both. I hated seeing that look in their eyes.” While he is making efforts, Jihwan still finds it difficult to make eye contact with people. Perhaps that is why he chooses to show his back even when he takes pictures.

Sulgi Min

Gyeonggi Suwon International School

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