China’s #MeToo claim costs university professor his job
- Karaoke night with students led to sexual harassment, says accuser
- Lecturer sacked for ‘violating code of ethics’ – he shouldn’t have been at the party
A university in northeast China has sacked a professor after a female student accused him online of sexual harassment, as higher education colleges step up action in response to the #MeToo movement.
Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University fired computer science lecturer Wang Donglai after an internal investigation found him guilty of “violating a teacher’s professional code of ethics”, according to an official Weibo announcement on Sunday.
The incident allegedly took place at a student entertainment night at a karaoke bar the previous Sunday, which Wang attended against staff guidelines, the university said.
The student filed a formal complaint last Friday under her real name. She also posted details of the alleged behaviour, on the social network QQ. Her post has since been deleted.
The student first hinted at the incident in a QQ post last Tuesday, according to Chinese news portal Thepaper.cn. “I’m scared of going to the library and seeing the person from that night,” she wrote in the earlier post.
“I’m scared of his face flashing through my mind, I’m scared he will suddenly appear in front of me, I’m scared that someone will utter his name.”