A female graduate who was allegedly assaulted by a professor at a university in Nanchang, East China’s Jiangxi Province has sued the school for failing to protect her from sexual assault, the first such case in China involving a college.
Sun Rou (pseudonym), a graduate of Nanchang University, filed a lawsuit on July 11 against the university and Zhou Bin, a professor who allegedly sexually assaulted her in 2016 for about seven months.
She said that as an institution of higher learning, Nanchang University should offer morally upright teachers. The university has failed to offer adequate security and protection as the Ministry of Education requires, which led to Zhou’s behavior. It should be held liable as well, China Women’s News reported.
Sun is also demanding that Zhou pay her 140,000 yuan ($20,969) in damages, including 10,000 yuan for psychological consultations, 80,000 yuan for therapy and 50,000 yuan for mental distress.
Sun said she suffers from Stockholm syndrome, wherein victims sympathize with their predator. “My psychological condition is bad, often immersed in fear and confusion. I often have nightmares. The university can pay my psychological consulting fee first and then seek money from Zhou,” Sun wrote on her Sina Weibo on Monday.
The lawsuit was filed in the people’s court in Nanchang’s Donghu district on July 11. It takes seven days for the court to review it, Wan Miaoyan, Sun’s attorney, told the Global Times on Tuesday. The Global Times contacted Sun but she declined an interview request, saying only that she is “waiting for the court’s decision.”
Nanchang University removed Zhou in 2017 as the deputy head of Nanchang University’s Academy of Chinese Classics and suspended him.
Cheng Shuijin, the institute’s head, who was contacted by Sun but declined to speak up for her, was also removed from his post, the university announced on its Weibo in December 2017.
Sun was allegedly assaulted for the first time on December 15, 2016 when she brought Zhou a package. “I said no, and then he hit me hard. He told me to stop moving. I freaked out,” she told The Beijing News in 2017. “I decided to speak up in order to protect other people like me,” Sun said.
Lü Xiaoquan, a lawyer at the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, a Beijing-based NGO, told the Global Times that the university will likely pay from 10 to 30 percent of the damages. If Sun wins, it would encourage other victims of sexual assault, Lü said.
Chinese media has reported 14 sexual assault cases at China’s universities since 2014, news site aicaijing.com.cn reported in January.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
