"Run 100 Laps Around the Field" Elementary Baseball Coach Faces Trial for Child Abuse Allegations

Baseball World Violence Scandal Surfaces Again
"Elementary School Baseball Coach Repeatedly Uses Verbal and Physical Abuse"
"Victim of Malicious Complaints" Parents and Coach Disagree

The previously quiet baseball world has once again been shaken by a violence scandal. An elementary school baseball team coach has been indicted on charges of abusing students, including ordering them to "run 100 laps around the field."

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On the 11th, the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office indicted A (in his 30s), a coach of an elementary school baseball team in Incheon, without detention last December on charges of child abuse under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, as a worker at a child welfare facility.

A is accused of physically and emotionally abusing B, an 11-year-old elementary school student and baseball team member, by ordering him to do 500 push-ups and run 100 laps around the field within 1 hour and 30 minutes last year. After receiving a complaint from B's side in May of last year, the police launched an investigation and sent A to the prosecution in August of the same year.

A is known to be a contract employee, and his contract was extended once more after the police investigation began. A denies the charges, claiming, "I am actually the victim suffering from malicious complaints from parents." The first trial for this case is scheduled to be held at the Incheon District Court on the 1st of next month.

Earlier, in December last year, a report was filed that coaches at C Middle School in Seoul, known as a prestigious baseball school, continuously abused a specific player, prompting a police investigation. The victim player claimed that the C Middle School coach and coaching staff repeatedly subjected him to verbal abuse and physical assault. He also stated that due to this abuse, his eyesight deteriorated from 0.1 to 0.1 within a month and that he exhibited symptoms of tic disorder. Although the number of children dreaming of becoming baseball players is increasing, corporal punishment such as physical and verbal abuse remains unchanged, leading to growing calls for establishing a baseball player human rights ordinance in the baseball community.