Colleges can help victims of sexual harassment achieve justice in some instances, but only if they place the rights of victims above concerns about their public image, according to an editorial from Narada Insights, a news outlet focused on social affairs.
The editorial follows the firing of Zhang Peng, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong Province who a university investigation found sexually harassed female students and colleagues. Zhang's teaching credentials were revoked and a scholarship canceled.
Colleges sometimes act to punish such offenders by removing from their position, taking away their ability to teach lessons or firing them outright. Yet, schools still fail to take sexual harassment seriously and tend to prioritize maintaining a positive image over the rights of victims, the editorial says.
Sometimes school decisionmakers directly or indirectly block the discussion to avoid blowback. If some students do not comply they might be threatened with failing their classes. It can be deeply traumatic for victims to remain at school and be forced to carry on studying when harassers remain at large.
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