Child prodigy dropped out of school for gifted due to harassment

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Child prodigy dropped out of school for gifted due to harassment

Published: 21 Aug. 2023, 14:36 Updated: 21 Aug. 2023, 15:44

The 10-year old prodigy Baek Kang-hyeon on his YouTube posted nearly a year ago in 2022. [YOUTUBE CAPTURE]

A child prodigy who recently dropped out of one of Korea's most prestigious high schools was harassed by older classmates, according to his father.

In a YouTube statement Monday, the father of 10-year-old Baek Kang-hyeon said his son's weight fell from 27 kilograms (59 pounds) when he first entered Seoul Science High School to 22 kilograms due to harassment.

He claimed that his son had been the victim of abuse from classmates since May.

Baek was told two to three times a week that his presence at the school for the gifted was a mockery to other students.

"The child started to lose his laughter and fell into depression," the father said.

During a group project, he was told that having him was like having one person less in the group.

Older students didn't give him assignments during group projects and treated him as if he were invisible.

"Whenever there was a group project, he said he felt like he would go insane out of anxiety," the father said.

According to the child's father, Baek would spend his time watching videos or playing video games during group assignments.

"He described the time as torture," the father wrote.

The harassment didn't end in class as he was ridiculed online.

Baek was described as an idiot in popular online communities, which in turn elicited replies of derision aimed at the prodigy.

"The child, who was once so bright, started to become nervous and began to stutter," the father said.

Baek told his parents that everyone was treating him nicely so that they wouldn't worry.

"It was only when we saw the online posts that he told us the truth," the father said. "He cried silently."

“I wanted to be creative”
On Saturday, Baek posted a video on his YouTube channel, announcing that he had dropped out of Seoul Science High School.

"Two days ago, while getting ready for school after summer vacation, I was busy memorizing math equations while brushing my teeth," Baek wrote in the YouTube statement. "When I saw myself in the mirror, I realized I was turning into a machine that only solved problems."

The 10-year-old said he suddenly had the urge to start composing, which he hadn't done for a long time, and to create board games.

"I wanted to do something creative," Baek said. "When I told my dad that I wanted to stop, he just hugged me and told me to live the life that I want."

"Do as your heart tells you and live your own life, not the life of others," the father told him, according to Baek.

However, the father decided to expose the real reason why his son wanted to drop out on Sunday through a statement released on Baek's YouTube channel.

The father claimed that he received emails from the parents of other students at the school, threatening to expose the true reasons behind Baek's decision to drop out.

"I wanted to bury the secrets of what happened to Gang-hyeon at Seoul Science High School and take them to my grave," the father claimed. "However, I could no longer keep it to myself after receiving humiliating emails."

Baek Kang-hyeon sloving a problem on the SBS TV show ″Finding Genius″ in 2016 when he was only 41-months old. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Threats from other parents
According to Baek's father, one parent said she could no longer let Baek ruin the image of Seoul Science High School.

The unidentified woman claimed that the young prodigy was dropping out of school because he was performing poorly in class.

"There isn't a parent [from the school] who doesn't know that Gang-hyeon only answered one math problem correctly on his entire mid-term exam," the parent said in an email that Baek's father posted on YouTube.

The email continued to claim that all the other parents were certain that Baek would drop out and accused the school of admitting Baek without a proper exam.

The parent accused Baek of lying and damaging the image of the students attending the school.

The parent also said that Baek wasn't the only genius and mentioned her son's high scores on an IQ test.

"Honestly, I can't say that he was last in the school or that he couldn't understand class, but he shouldn't have damaged the image of other students at the school," the parent said. "While parents closely watched the situation, if you continue to make this an issue and do not delete the broadcast or the YouTube video, we will have to publish true articles."

On Monday, Baek's father said the parent who sent the email had apologized.

Baek's father said the threat wasn't the first they had received from other students' parents.

In the past, some had accused him and his wife of using their child to make money, while others had said their child wasn't the only smart one.

Some even asked them to stop making him appear on TV shows.

"My child could also appear on TV, but we've decided not to," said one email that Baek's father disclosed.

Baek, the prodigy
The 10-year-old first appeared on a Korean TV show that introduced child prodigies when Baek was only 41 months old in 2016.

Baek made headlines when he scored 163 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, equivalent to an IQ of 204 on the Mensa's IQ test.

The score falls in the top 0.0001 percentile.

Baek, who started first grade at six years old in 2019, graduated elementary school as a fifth grader in 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, he attended middle school.

Baek was admitted to Seoul Science High School this year.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]