Lee Hae In speaks up about the lack of human rights during 'Idol School' filming, including having to eat staff leftovers, being unable to visit hospitals, and more

Lee Hae In spoke up among the 'Idol School' controversy.

Following the suspicions of an unjust voting system in 'Produce X 101', similar doubt toward previous seasons of 'Produce 101' and 'Idol School' has been continually fueled by several allegations. Lee Hae In was a favorite to be one of the finalists on 'Idol School,' and viewers were shocked when she did not make it into the final group. As controversy on 'Idol School' grows along with the 'Produce X 101' controversy, Lee Hae In herself spoke up about the inhumane conditions of 'Idol School' filming.

She said, 

Hello, this is Lee Hae In. I didn't know how to say this, or how to act, and because I don't have something to defend me like a label, so I decided to come write here.
It's not a good situation, so I didn't really want to continue talking about it. But I didn't want to talk about my situation through my father, or through other people, so I wanted to say directly what things are like. I believe that people speak to media, there can be different interpretations, or different emphasis on things.
I am not someone who can know if there were manipulations or not. And I'm not sure if that's important to my life. I've learned through time that life is not fair to everyone, and apart from the controversy, there were various chances for me to meet fans who support me. I was just thinking that 'Idol School' was a chance that I was not able to grab.
I believe that the truth will come out through the police investigations.
It's true that I was requested not to attend the currently controversial 3000 member audition. If the staff want to say that everyone attended, I want to ask them if they can reveal the videos of all of their 1st auditions. The broadcast date and the actual dorming dates were defintely different. I won't talk about how I felt and what I guessed through the filming, but just what I know from facts. 
While we were preparing for 'Mr. Mr.' during 'Idol School' and preparing to pick the #1 within the team, the rule was suddenly changed from a competition within the team but rather a competition between teams. We were told this on the day of the competition. During the competition, our rival team 'Catallena' lip synced their performance even though the category was 'live dance position'. During the final live stage after I was dropped from the new song audition, the person who dropped me apologized and told me that the staff were against me.
Other than this, there were times when we were asked to bounce to the rhythm and say the music was good even though there was no music playing, and also times when we would film as if we were in a drama because we were asked to look back and smile.
Also, unlike what was reported, the people who received the contract during the show were not all 41 contestants, but just a few people. If you are going to say that everyone had the contract, I believe that can be solved by revealing the information about how much contract fees were received. The day before I was eliminated from 'Idol School', I saw a contestant who looked like she would make it, but did not want to make it, be called and coaxed into performing well, and I realized that I would probably not make it. I prepared a speech for being dropped, and got on stage preparing for it to be my last stage. As I expected, I was eliminiated as #11. I want to ask the staff that gave me the mic - the program picks 9 girls, and you didn't make any of the other girls give a speech. Why did you make me do it, when I was 11, and not even 10? I'm also curious what you were thinking when you got a 2-shot with me and another contestant who was known from another survival show..
As you saw in the news, we went into the Yangpyung English Village in May, and we never came out of it until the last live broadcast day. Our phones were confiscated. It was not a system like 'Produce 101' when we were there only for a short time. I believe that could happen because we didn't have a label that could protect us.
We were allowed to go to Olive Young once a month to buy necessities, and there was nothing to eat outside of the designated times to eat. There were girls who were so tired they'd fallen asleep during that time, or they were sick and had to mis it, and they had to starve because they couldn't go to a store. Girls who were allowed to go to school once or twice a month hid food in clothes, but even that was confiscated when they came back. Yangpyung is different from Seoul and it's colder, and by the end of filming, so many girls were cold and we continued to ask to be let out, but instead of letting us out, the staff allowed us to get packages from our parents just once. Do you think all this was only because we couldn't eat and because we were jsut a little cold? While the staff ordered food for themselves, we had to hide and eat leftovers, and had no human rights. Most of the contestants were underage, but they didn't follow the rules for filming. Some girls slept in studios without a single window and got sick, but the staff wouldn't change their dorms, and we had to argue so much for our dorm to be changed. That's when I felt that nothing would change until someone spoke up.

In a second post, she wrote:

We were unable to go to the hospital voluntarily. I know that realistically, this is because there was a lack of personnel to take care of that many people. But I don't think that changes the fact that they didn't give any basic care while forcing us to continuously dorm together just so it was easier for the staff. For 5 months, we filmed for 24 hours without even a sense of time, and we didn't even have legal rights. We didn't get any pay, and we were imprisoned there. If people say, 'You wanted to do that', I have no response. However, I believe that even if you went into a company because you wanted, you shouldn't have to be forced to bear unfair practices.

After the last live broadcast, I didn't have the heart to see my parents, or go to the ending party. I met with the trainers separately to calm myself. The staff saw me crying on the floor, and asked me what I had to cry about. I didn't have anything to say to them.

I asked for my contract to be terminated on the day after I was eliminated, and asked them to tell me the truth about the controversy on manipulation, but I was told that I was on the real-time searches and that I was the real winner. I said I no longer wanted to be in a team because I was exhausted, and they promised that they would make a team for me. They asked me what program I wanted to go on, and said that they would let me go on dramas and various other things that I had been individually contacted about. They promised they would never abandon me in the practice room and let me promote individually while still preparing for a team. Later when I was with trainees that had short training periods, they would say to us, I only promised Hae In that she'd debut. If you don't prepare enough, I'm only going to debut Hae In as a solo.

Immediately, they told me that since I had to prepare to be a back dancer for MAMA, we should delay [my debut] a little, and so I did. After MAMA was over and the timing became ambiguous, I was told that if I promoted, I would be wasting my image. I was the oldest unni in the team and was told that the leader has to focus on practicing for the rest of the girls to follow, and I spent that time looking just at the other girls and relying on them for strength. I saw articles for 'Produce 48' and asked to be on the show because I wanted to grasp at something, but they told me it was the best not to go on the show, so I just practiced by myself and looked forward to the October debut.

Trainees have trainee contracts, and artists have artist contracts. For artist contracts, there are contract fees, and both parties have to do the best. While my contract time was running, I don't know why I was forced to sign the artist contract when I was just a trainee again. The only promotions I had was going on radio once, and going on fashion week once. If they tell me that they gave me work, I really don't have anything to say. 

But when I said that I didn't want to do it, they held onto me and tried to convince me. When the promised October came and left, it was too hard on me economically, so I asked for my contract to be canceled, and none of the higher-ups would meet with me. What I asked for was not for me to leave the company all of a sudden, but rather for some sort of direction that I could follow even if it wasn't in detail. The debut project that we talked about when I signed the contract was basically gone, so I wanted to know a new direction. I was told that there was nothing to tell me, and that I could not even promote by myself even as an actress, I decided that they could not fulfill their duties of the contract and asked for their consent in canceling the contract. This was in February, and the document for the cancellation of the contract says April 30th, but the actual date that I received the cancellation of the contract after bothering them every day is in the summer some months later. This is the post-it that was actually stuck on the cancellation of the contract. I can't hide how disappointed I am if I'm thinking that my several years are in that single post-it note. I didn't want to say anything and I know I only have things to lose by speaking up, but I thought that if I didn't say anything, there would be so many misunderstandings and that I would regret it in the future, so I'm just recording the facts. I'm sorry that I'm writing this bad news.

As you can see, I signed a contract but I was eliminated. Just like me, some of the contracts didn't lead to being accepted, and some of the girls who didn't contract debuted, so I don't think the existence of a contract is evidence. I want to say that the trainees could only guess, and that no one could know for certain. We can't know if there were people that were confirmed to debut before the show ended. I just know that out of the 3000, not all of the 41 that were selected were part of the competition. I hope there are no misunderstandings.