A 10-year-old child, who gained fame as an infant prodigy years ago and entered one of the nation’s most elite high schools in March this year, recently dropped out due to persistent bullying by his classmates, his father said Monday.
The child, named Baek Kang-hyun, grabbed people’s attention in 2016, when he was only 41 months old, by displaying extraordinary talents in mathematics and music during his appearance on an SBS TV program on gifted children. At that time, his IQ was known to be 204.
Baek again surprised the public in March this year when he entered Seoul Science High School. But he said on YouTube last Saturday that he quit school voluntarily the previous day after being disappointed with himself having become a machine for solving math problems.
In a controversial disclosure, however, Baek’s father insisted on a YouTube channel this week that his son had suffered continuous verbal abuse from his classmates and the school refused to respond to his request for help.
“I heard Kang-hyun has been told by his older classmates two to three times a week since May that his attendance at the school was deceiving people,” the elder Baek said, noting his son gradually lost his smile and became depressed.
Some of his classmates who were in the same team project as Kang-hyun treated him as an “invisible person” by saying, “It’s like there is one person missing in our group if Kang-hyun is a group member,” according to the elder Baek.
Moreover, a social media post has been found to contain swear words insulting Kang-hyun, prompting the elder Baek to consider asking for police investigation. He added his son weighed 27 kilograms at the time of high school admission but is now only 22 kg.
He also said bullying perpetrators offered a formal apology over the weekend and his family decided to forgive them.
The elder Baek then regretted the school’s refusal to extend help.
“We asked Kang-hyun be allowed to be an exception to the team assignments, but the school refused, saying the system cannot be changed because of one person,” he lamented.
Source: Yonhap News Agency