Elementary School Girl Falls After Monster Appearance at English Academy Halloween Party... "Permanent Disability Possible"

Parents Claim Negligence in Academy Safety Management
"Accidents Shouldn't Happen by Imitating Western Customs"
Academy: "Overenthusiastic... Will Do Our Best to Recover"

A famous English academy held a Halloween party while neglecting safety, resulting in an elementary school student sustaining a serious head injury. The student's parents claimed that the academy's negligence in safety management caused the accident.

According to Yonhap News on the 31st, A, a 5th-grade elementary school student living in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, attended a Halloween party hosted by the academy around 8:30 PM on the 27th.

A Halloween party at a foreign language academy
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, the accident occurred during a scene where a "monster attacks children" was staged for Halloween. The footage showed a monster appearing in a dark and narrow classroom, with terrified children screaming amid frightening sounds. Afterwards, A fell and hit her forehead on a sharp metal part of a desk, resulting in a 5 cm laceration. The wound was reportedly deep enough to expose the bone.

A was diagnosed at the hospital with the possibility of permanent disability, as her muscles and nerves have not fully recovered, causing her forehead wrinkles not to form properly.

A’s father said in an interview with Yonhap News, “It’s absurd to imitate Western customs and end up with an accident. When a scary scene is staged in a dark space, children can fall and hit the edges of desks, so safety was neglected too much. Such incidents are probably happening at other language academies as well. Dangerous events should not be held.”

The academy responsible for the accident acknowledged their liability and stated they will do their best for A’s recovery.

An academy official said, “We wanted to create good memories for the children by holding the event, but our enthusiasm led us to overlook necessary precautions. We deeply regret this and will do our utmost to ensure the child’s condition returns to how it was before the accident. We will also post an apology on the academy’s website.”

Meanwhile, Halloween is a festival held every year on October 31st across the United States, where people dress up as ghosts, witches, monsters, and other costumes. In South Korea, it began spreading in the early 2000s through English kindergartens and other institutions teaching English-speaking cultures, and has now become an annual event mainly at institutions for infants and young children.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.