Sexual assaults on students by teachers are serious offenses

A 19-YEAR-OLD FEMALE high school student committed suicide in Qingyang, Northwest China’s Gansu province, last week, which was reportedly associated with her former head teacher, surnamed Wu, who forcibly kissed and molested her in September 2016. Thepaper.cn comments:

After the woman committed suicide, her family showed the media a petition letter written by her, which blamed Wu for sexually assaulting her. Her father said that she had always been angry because Wu received only a light penalty and he was still teaching at the school.

According to the announcement by the local police, Wu was detained for 10 days and the local procuratorate decided not to sue him in court, saying “the case is minor”. As the girl’s death aroused wide attention, the local education bureau has now banned Wu from teaching for life.

Wu has now received a heavier penalty than two years ago. However, more investigation from the higher authorities is needed to answer the following question: The school obviously failed to protect the student, so should its officials be punished?

For two years, the woman and her family ran back and forth among the local education bureau, the school, the hospital, trying to seek justice. Why did the local education bureau not ban Wu from teaching until after the student committed suicide? Should the local education officials be held answerable as well?

And although many legal experts say the procuratorate has the power to decide not to sue a suspect, the case should teach a lesson to judicial staff, too, namely to be more cautious in cases such as sexual abuse, because the psychological wounds might be deeper than they appear.

We hope such cases are treated seriously in the future so as to prevent any similar tragedies.