Peking U, student clash over harassment case
A school of China’s prestigious Peking University said on Monday that it respects every student’s interests and tries to protect their legal rights, in response to one of its students, who published an article online accusing the school of forcing her to drop her requests to disclose information on a former professor’s sexual harassment case.
A letter with the signature of Yue Xin, who claims to be a student at the university’s School of Foreign Languages (SFL), circulated online on Monday saying that her school counselor secretly summoned her mother to her dormitory, woke her up around 11 pm on Sunday, and asked her to delete related materials on the information disclosure requests, and to promise not to get involved in the sexual harassment case of Shen Yang.
Shen, a former Peking University professor, was reportedly involved in the suicide case of his female student Gao Yan two decades ago.
Yue said that she was one of eight people who submitted a disclosure request on the sexual harassment case on April 9 to the university against Shen. Their requests were declined on Friday.
The SFL confirmed on its website on Monday evening that Yue’s mother was summoned on Sunday by Yue’s school counselor, after the faculty member failed to reach the student between Sunday afternoon and evening, and did so out of concern.
The school contacted Yue’s parents Monday morning after noticing the relevant content on social media, and expressed concern over Yue’s well-being, SFL said in the post while vowing to respect and safeguard every student’s legitimate rights.
Yue’s article went viral on Chinese social media on Monday.
When reached by the Global Times earlier of the day, the university’s publicity department declined to comment on the incident.
The incident occurred after Shen’s sexual assault case resurfaced at the beginning of April, after several people who claimed to be the victim’s former classmates published allegations online and demanded a thorough investigation.