Extracurricular actor Kim Dong-hee cleared of school bullying allegations
SEOUL - K-drama actor Kim Dong-hee, who was accused in February of being a bully when he was in school, has been cleared of the allegations.
His lawyer released a statement on Tuesday (Dec 28) to say that the 22-year-old had worked with law enforcement agencies after the scandal broke and submitted his plaintiff statement, statements from his teachers and alumni, and copies of his school records.
"However, due to the fact that this happened in elementary school, which was a long time ago, and there is no clear evidence to support the different positions and claims, the investigations found Kim Dong-hee to be innocent," said the statement, which was translated from Korean by entertainment news portal Soompi.
Anonymous netizens had posted in February about Kim's alleged misdeeds during his school years, which included smoking e-cigarettes, hitting and strangling his schoolmates, forcing them to massage him, and slapping the face of a student who has a disability.
Kim was last seen in Netflix series Itaewon Class (2020) and Extracurricular (2020), in which he had his first lead role, but has kept a low profile since the scandal broke.
The lawyer's statement also singled out the allegation of bullying a classmate with a disability.
"Kim Dong-hee grew up with two people with disabilities in his immediate family, and although he had a difficult family life, he tried to protect and embrace his family's pain and wounds. Thus, false information about (his attitude towards) people with disabilities caused not only him, but also his family members with disabilities, a lot of pain and suffering," the statement said.
It added: "There was a time when Kim Dong-hee was rebellious because of his poor childhood environment, but he never did anything that would be considered a social controversy."
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