Lawmaker calls on Baejae High principal to resign over 'Starbucks' chant controversy

Kim Jun-hyeon, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, on Wednesday called for the resignation of Baejae High School Principal Lee Hyo-jun and a formal apology from the Baejae Hakdang foundation over the controversy surrounding the school's baseball players chanting a "Starbucks" slogan.

Kim, a historian-turned-lawmaker who sits on the National Assembly's education committee, held a press conference at the Assembly that day, saying the "Starbucks" chant incident had "delivered a major shock to our society and the world of sports." He added that appropriate punishment and reflection for the players, team, and coaching staff responsible were only natural.

"However, the way Baejae High is handling the fallout has things completely backwards," Kim said. "The core issue is clear: the students were wrong. But the greater wrong lies with the adults at the school who taught and allowed this behavior."

He also argued that a six-month competition ban was far from a light punishment in the reality of Korean school sports. "For high school athletes, it means giving up on university admission and abandoning hopes of going professional — it is effectively a death sentence that ends their careers as players," he said.

Kim questioned where Principal Lee was amid the crisis, saying Lee had "slipped away from the comprehensive responsibility he should bear" while parents who had done nothing wrong were left in anguish.

He directed sharp criticism at Lee, saying a true educator and school principal should have "pleaded to take full responsibility and resign, while asking that the children's futures be spared" and sought lighter penalties for the students. "I cannot suppress my anger at this cowardly conduct — sacrificing his own students for his own safety," Kim said.

Kim stressed that the incident was not a simple, spontaneous lapse by the students. He accused Baejae High of conducting education that downplayed the clear wrongs of former President Rhee Syngman — including his authoritarian long-term rule, the suppression of the April 19 Revolution, and the destruction of democracy — while uncritically glorifying him solely as a founding president and independence activist.

He further said that, according to education office records, Baejae High possessed 41 teaching materials from a private education provider whose instructors had drawn criticism for distorting the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident and other biased accounts, earning the label of "brainwashing materials." He added that the school had also registered in its digital library books by Ji Man-won — who received a criminal conviction for insulting the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement by calling it a North Korean military riot — making them freely accessible to students at any time.

Kim went on to urge Principal Lee, whom he accused of instilling far-right and New Right ideology in students and thereby leading them to act wrongly, to "take comprehensive responsibility for this incident and resign immediately." He also called on the chairman and board of the Baejae Hakdang foundation to "immediately accept joint responsibility and apologize," saying they had stood by and failed to fulfill their role.

The controversy began June 29, when some Baejae High baseball players chanted "Let's go, let's go, let's go to Starbucks" directed at their opponents, Gwangju Jeil High School, during a game at Seoul's Mokdong Baseball Stadium as part of the Cheongnyonggi National High School Baseball Championship and Weekend League finals. One student also shouted "Tank Day," drawing further criticism.

The chants appeared to reference an earlier incident in which Starbucks Korea sparked public outrage by using phrases such as "May 18 Tank Day" and "a thud on the desk" in promotional materials tied to the anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.