"Everyone from OO Middle School Knows"… 'The Glory' Was Based on a Real School Violence Incident

Scene from the drama 'The Glory'
Similar incident at a certain middle school in Cheongju in 2006

A claim has emerged that the school violence depicted in the Netflix original drama 'The Glory,' which portrays the revenge story of a school violence victim, is based on the 'Cheongju Female Middle School Student School Violence' incident that occurred in Cheongju, Chungbuk in the past.

There has been a claim that the school violence depicted in 'The Glory' was inspired by a true story from 17 years ago.
[Photo by Netflix]

On the 11th, a post on an online community in the Cheongju area gained attention, stating that a scene in 'The Glory' reminded viewers of a school violence incident that took place at a certain middle school in Cheongju.

In the drama, the school violence ringleader Park Yeon-jin (played by Lim Ji-yeon) checks whether a heated beauty tool called a 'godegi' (hair straightener) is hot by pressing it against various parts of her classmate Moon Dong-eun's (played by Song Hye-kyo) body. In the story, Park Yeon-jin commits this act because Moon Dong-eun reported the school violence to the police.

The real incident similar to this scene occurred in May 2006 at a middle school in Cheongju. At that time, three third-year middle school students assaulted one classmate for 20 days. The perpetrators demanded money from the victim, and if the victim did not comply, they subjected her to group beatings. They also caused burns on her arm using a hair straightener in the classroom and inflicted injuries on various parts of her body with pins and books.

The victim at the time told Newsis, "The hair straightener temperature checks were conducted at intervals of several days, so the wounds never had a chance to heal, and there was even a 'ritual' punishment where the scabs that were healing were forcibly removed with fingernails," adding, "It was painful enough to wish for death."

One of the main perpetrators of the incident was arrested, and the school and teachers who failed to properly respond to the school violence were reportedly subject to administrative sanctions. Netizens reacted with comments such as "The school uniforms in the drama are similar to the current uniforms of that school," and "Everyone born in 1991 who attended OO Middle School knows about this."