Park Wi Faces School Bullying Allegations as Former Classmates Speak Out: "If He Had Done Bad Things, Would 40 People Have Visited Him When He Was Paralyzed?"

[Financial News] The controversy surrounding YouTuber Park Wi is spiraling out of control. It began with backlash after CCTV footage of his KTX-Sancheon fall accident was released, and has since expanded to include renewed attention to past videos, as well as allegations of school bullying and even time spent in a Juvenile Detention Center.

Recent posts on online communities and YouTube comments have claimed that Park Wi returned to school after spending time in a Juvenile Detention Center in the past, or that he bullied classmates during his school days. However, no objective evidence or materials have been presented to support those claims.
As unverified claims continued to spread, users identifying themselves as Park Wi's former classmates from Yongsan High School also came forward. They said, "We were classmates who visited him when he became fully paralyzed. He was a friend who was completely unlike a school bully or someone who picked on others." They added that about 40 Yongsan High School classmates visited the hospital at the time, asking, "If Park Wi had done bad things, would so many classmates have gone to see him when he was seriously injured?"
Another former classmate also pushed back against the bullying allegations, saying of Park Wi, "He was a friend who had character, humility, intelligence, and athletic ability all at once during school. He even looked after the student who was the most ignored in the class," and, "On the school trip, he packed wraps for every child in the class and took care of them."

The latest controversy erupted after Park Wi uploaded CCTV footage of the KTX-Sancheon fall accident to his personal channel, Weracle, on the 21st. He said the video showed him falling on the 14th while getting off a KTX-Sancheon train, after his wheelchair wheel caught on the foot of a social service worker supporting a mobile ramp.
Park Wi explained that he released the footage for public interest reasons, to help prevent similar safety accidents in the future. Still, he faced criticism that it was excessive to post a video showing a worker's mistake on a channel with about 1 million subscribers.
Park Wi later deleted the video and apologized, saying, "I did not think enough about the worker's position." But the controversy did not subside, and a series of scheduled lectures and talk concerts were canceled. He also voluntarily stepped down from his role as a Seoul Metropolitan Government ambassador.
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