Should Lee Twins Be Prevented from Ever Playing Volleyball Again Due to Middle School Bullying Allegations?
People on the Internet want to further cancel the Lee twins:
Lee Da-yeong, a professional volleyball player who was suspended for bullying her teammates during her middle school days, along with her twin sister, Lee Jae-yeong, has faced criticism over news about her plans to transfer to the Greek league.
Korea Times
Public criticism is mounting that it is irresponsible for her to “run away” from the scandal and keep enjoying star athlete status, without even fully apologizing to the victims.
Turkish sports agency CAAN recently announced on its website that Lee Da-yeong signed a contract with PAOK Thessaloniki Greece, and she would become the first Korean player to play in the Greek league.
You can read more at the link, but the Lee twins have already been suspended from their professional team in Korea and from the national Olympic team. All this for bullying that allegedly happened in middle school. Yes you heard that right middle school!
Someone still has their feeling hurt from middle school which has greatly impacted the lives of these two athletes. People change a lot from middle school to adulthood; it seems to me an apology and leading an anti-bullying campaign would be sufficient response to this instead of the suspensions they received. Additionally I believe they have a right to earn a living and apparently Greece is an option one of the twins wants to take to do just that; so she should be allowed to do that.
Is the Greek team still Greek if it is not Greek?
The FTC needs a call here.
Everyone gets bullied in school. Korea just takes it too far by canceling the alleged offenders.
Let’s call the whole thing off…
This whole fiasco could have been prevented had the middle school in question took care of the matter and nipped this whole thing in the bud.
This thing is so much like the recent ROKAF sexual harassment scandal. Instead of confronting the issue and taking steps to solve it, the ROKAF leadership tried to sweep things under the rug so that they can all have a good day. We all know the result of those efforts.
When the bullying occurred and the student in question told the teachers, my guess is all those teachers wanted a good day and as such tried to sweep things under the rug. They probably told the student to drop it and forget about it. Of course the twins were probably star players in the volleyball team and the teachers probably didn’t want to upset things.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the student was angry at that time but over time that anger probably died down.
As for the twins they weren’t well known until recently when they got a lot of media coverage as a result of leading their team to a top position in the league.
That media coverage probably dug up a lot of bad memories.
We all know that some Koreans can get very deep and emotional when it comes to apologies and compensation, as witnessed by the recent events regarding Japan. From the looks of it the twins and their handlers, didn’t take the cue and looked like they treated this matter lightly and didn’t do much to contain the situation, which surely didn’t help things.
Well said, TOK
They must play. The nation’s pride is at stake!
Sorry, @ME, that ship has already sailed… And they’ll probably make lots more money and good press from foreigners than they would have done in Korea.
Sad that “cancel culture” has infected sports.
Probably not even bullying, someone is jealous and made up a story…
@ME The South Korea Womans Volleyball team does suck without them, although they have won their last 2 games. They are now 3-9 and in 14th place out of 16 teams. USA is 12-0.
Andy, how do you know such things and why would you possibly care?
^^ My daughter is a big volleyball fan (she played in school). She roots for the USA first and then SK second. 🙂 SK plays Brazil in about 45 minutes, hopefully SK won’t embarrass themselves tonight.