Two Baejai High baseball players quit sport over May 18 chant controversy

Two Baejai High School baseball players who led chants mocking the May 18 Gwangju Democracy Movement have quit the sport.

According to baseball officials, the two players who led the chants recently decided to leave the school's baseball program.

The controversy erupted during Baejai High's game against Gwangju Ilgo (Gwangju First High School) at the Cheongnyonggi tournament on June 29, when players in the dugout shouted slogans including "Let's go to Starbucks" and "Tank Day." The May 18 Gwangju Democracy Movement refers to the bloody crackdown in which Chun Doo-hwan and the new military junta deployed tanks against Gwangju citizens who rose up against their insurrection. Starbucks had held a "Tank Day" promotional event on May 18, prompting debate over whether the chants were meant to mock the suppression of Gwangju citizens with tanks. The controversy sparked a Starbucks boycott, to which some in conservative circles responded by launching a counter-campaign to patronize the chain. The Baejai High chants were interpreted in that context as ridiculing the May 18 democracy movement.

As the controversy grew, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee's Sports Fair Committee imposed a six-month competition ban.

All 36 members of the Baejai High baseball team visited Gwangju Ilgo to apologize and paid their respects at the National May 18 Democratic Cemetery. Gwangju Ilgo accepted the apology and asked that the Baejai students be treated leniently. The Sports Fair Committee subsequently took those factors into account and reduced the six-month ban to one month.

Separately, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education convened a student conduct committee, which imposed heavy disciplinary measures on the two students who led the chants and lighter penalties on the 10 who joined in.