In response to a question from ICv2, Ablaze Co-Founder Rich Young said “We have no official statement on Get Schooled Season 2 as we are waiting to hear from the Korean Studio (YLAB) regarding the recent situation. We will keep our readers and channel partners informed as we get more information.”
Set in the near future, Get Schooled is the story of an educator wrangling with a severe bullying problem in a troubled school in Korea, often dealing with the bullies in unorthodox ways. When Ablaze announced the license, the webtoon had 1.3 million subscribers and was the second most popular drama on the Webtoon platform (see “Ablaze Licenses Manhwa”).
On September 10, Twitter user @rinstarr posted a Tweet showing part of a scene from Episode 125 of the series, which had appeared in Korea but had not yet been released in the U.S. The images depict an argument between a Black student and an Asian-American teacher in which (in an unofficial translation) the student calls the teacher a “monkey” and the teacher responds with a racial slur. Webtoon replied with a Tweet saying, “This racist content has been removed from our platform and the episode is currently in review. It should not have been published and we apologize to anyone who encountered it or harm it caused to the incredible WEBTOON community.” The series does not appear to be currently available on Webtoon.
In addition, creators Yongtaek Chae and Garam Ham posted an apology on Instagram. In the post, which no longer appears to be available (but has been widely reproduced elsewhere), they apologize and explain that the purpose of the episode was to depict discrimination against immigrants to Korea. “We failed to recognize how certain expressions are racist, even if employed for dramatic impact, causing enormous pain to our readers and the wider WEBTOON community.” Later on, they state, “The racist language and imagery in that episode has been edited and removed, and the series is going on hiatus in the U.S., but we know we have caused real pain to many people.”
