“The barley tea turned yellow and smelled foul...” Urine contamination targeting only female students’ tumblers remains unsolved after 3 years

[Financial News]  Urine contamination incidents have reportedly targeted female students’ water bottles and tumblers at a high school in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, for three years, but the culprit has yet to be identified.
On the 29th, JTBC’s “Scandal Supervisor” aired reports from female third-year students at the high school.
One student filled her tumbler with barley tea on the 27th and shared it with friends from first period until before lunch.
After lunch, when she went to drink the barley tea that remained, she noticed that her tumbler had become heavier than before. The student opened the lid and was startled to find an unidentified liquid full of bubbles. The liquid reportedly had the characteristic pungent smell of urine.
She recalled a similar urine-like smell coming from the blankets of around six female students during the previous first semester. She decided the matter could not be dismissed as a simple prank.
She showed the tumbler to her homeroom teacher and reported what had happened. The teacher collected it as evidence.
The school then sent a survey text message to all third-year students, saying, “We are seeking information about the student who mixed a foreign substance into a tumbler in the Grade 3, Class X classroom during lunch.”
The problem is that this was not the first time such an incident had occurred.
According to the students who were affected, similar incidents had occurred in one class around 10 times between May and November 2024, when they were in their first year.
At the time, one female student reportedly threw away all the barley tea in her tumbler after it turned yellow and began to smell foul. Other students who witnessed it reportedly gagged at the strong odor.
Another female student noticed after a class that required moving to another room that the amount of iced tea had actually increased, even though she had drunk about two-thirds of it. The drink had become lukewarm and seemed to have spoiled, so she reportedly threw it away immediately.
Because all the affected students were female, they suspected that male students might be responsible, but lamented, “It’s upsetting that we end up suspecting all our friends.”
There were also complaints about the school’s lukewarm response. The students said they had previously written down what happened and reported it to a teacher, but the teacher at the time did no more than warn the class, saying, “Let’s not do this. Don’t play pranks like this.”
The school reportedly reviewed CCTV footage at the time but could not identify a suspect, and the teacher closed the case without taking any further action, saying, “There’s nothing I can do for you.”
Regarding the recent incident, the school explained, “The CCTV cameras only cover the hallways, so it’s difficult to identify the culprit,” and added, “We identified a student who entered an empty classroom this May, but that student denied being responsible.”
The school added, “We have reported it to the police and submitted the tumbler and liquid as evidence,” and said, “We were told that if the National Forensic Service’s examination confirms the presence of a foreign substance, the case will be formally registered and investigated.”
It also added, “We reported it to the education office as a sex-related matter,” and, “A letter to parents was distributed on the 28th, and we plan to establish the facts through a thorough investigation.”

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