The handwritten apology from Seoul’s Paichai High School baseball team to Gwangju Jeil High School students for inappropriate chants during a game on June 29, 2026. Student athletes visited the school in Gwangju to deliver their apology in person on July 6. (courtesy Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education)
Paichai High School’s baseball team, coaching staff and teachers issued formal apologies after student athletes mocked the May 18 Democratization Movement with chants during a baseball game against Gwangju Jeil High School last week. “We are aware that our mere presence in Gwangju makes you uncomfortable, so we are sincerely grateful for the authorities and student athletes at Gwangju Jeil High School for being so gracious with their time,” the Paichai High School baseball team stated in their apology on Monday. “We offer our deepest apologies for causing grave distress to the Gwangju Jeil High School baseball team, their parents, and people of Gwangju for the inappropriate comments and actions demonstrated by our students in the baseball pitch, which should always signify dreams and hope,” the athletes said. All 36 members of Paichai High School’s baseball team were joined by their school’s principal, coaching staff, parents and education officials in a group of 80 that visited Gwangju Jeil High School to deliver a formal apology in person. “Every member of our team deeply regrets this incident. Through this experience, we have come to understand the importance of maintaining strong moral standards and conducting ourselves with integrity, both on and off the baseball field. We caused significant emotional pain to the players of Gwangju Jeil High School. We should never have behaved that way toward our fellow athletes, and we realize that we caused a great deal of pain,” the team said. “Many people have been deeply hurt by the inappropriate remarks and actions of our athletes. We offer our sincerest apologies. We will never forget this incident and will continue to reflect on our actions going forward,” they added. The coach of Paichai High School’s baseball team made his own apology. “I can make no excuses for the fact that the players on my team shouted chants fueling regional discrimination against the students at Gwangju Jeil High. As an authority figure whose duty it is to guide and teach these students, I bear the greatest responsibility for this incident and therefore offer my sincerest apologies,” he said. “I failed to properly teach my student athletes the attitude they ought to maintain in games that should be clean and fair, which include harboring respect for their opponents and the spirit of sportsmanship. I am fully aware that saying that I failed to immediately recognize the inappropriateness of the chants or stop them in time because I was too focused on winning the game will come across as nothing more than an excuse,” he added.
