Paichai baseball team asks court to lift 6-month ban over 'Starbucks' chants

Paichai High School's baseball team, which was banned from national competition for six months over chants that mocked the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, has asked a court to suspend the penalty.

The high school filed for an injunction on Friday to halt the ban imposed by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA), the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said.

Paichai is understood to accept that the students' cheering was inappropriate, but is arguing that a six-month ban goes too far.

The school is also pursuing a nonjudicial appeal. On Wednesday, it filed for a review by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), the KBSA's parent body, which told the school on Friday that it will convene its Sports Fairness Committee at 3 p.m. on July 20 to reconsider the penalty.

A court ruling or the outcome of the KSOC review will decide whether Paichai can play in the Bonghwang High School Baseball Tournament, which starts on Aug. 6. The Bonghwang tournament is effectively the team's last chance to compete nationally this year. Some in education circles expect that participation — or an absence — could affect the athletes' college admissions or their prospects of turning professional.

The controversy began on June 29, when some Paichai players chanted "Let's go to Starbucks!" and "Tank day!" toward the opposing dugout during a game against Gwangju Jeil High School at Mokdong Baseball Stadium in western Seoul. The game was a first-round match of the 81st Blue Dragon Flag National High School Baseball Championship.

The chants referred to a recent Starbucks Korea promotion called "Tank Day," which ran on the anniversary of the Gwangju movement and was widely condemned as trivializing the 1980 pro-democracy uprising, when the military deployed tanks and troops against civilians in the city. Aimed at players from the Gwangju region, the chants were seen as disparaging both the region and the movement.

On July 1, the KBSA held a Sports Fairness Committee meeting and ordered Paichai to forfeit its remaining games in the tournament, on top of the six-month ban from national competition.

BY LEE BO-RAM [[email protected]]