At least five Hong Kong teachers accused of protest-related misconduct were not given a chance to defend themselves before Education Bureau, union says
- Union says teachers did not get a chance to respond before being notified by the Education Bureau that their cases have been substantiated
- But the bureau said the teachers got ‘abundant opportunities’ to respond to the allegations
At least five Hong Kong teachers accused of protest-related misconduct were not given a chance to defend themselves before the Education Bureau, according to a leading teachers’ union.
Latest figures from the bureau showed it received a total of 106 complaints of protest-related misconduct against teachers between June and November. Investigation was completed in about 60 cases and wrongdoings confirmed in 30.
The pro-democracy Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) said on Thursday about 20 teachers against whom such complaints were filed had sought its help over the past four months. About 17 of the cases were related to comments the teachers had made on social media, and nine have been found to be initially substantiated.
The union said in five of the cases, the teachers did not get a chance to respond before being notified by the bureau that their cases had been substantiated, mostly on the basis of information provided by their respective schools.
“The EDB has not been able to give fair treatment to people, allow them to understand the whole procedure and to make their statement before making its judgment,” education sector lawmaker and vice-president of the union Ip Kin-yuen said.
The union said most of the 17 cases only involved the teachers’ personal comments, such as expressing their views on “police violence”, while in some cases there were “mild criticism”. Many of the comments were shared only with their social media friends, which were later used by the bureau as evidence.
Many teachers also told the union a lot of the complaints were made anonymously with the complainants identifying themselves as “a parent of an alumnus of the school” or “a concerned citizen”. The union found it “inappropriate and unfair” as it felt the teachers should also know who were making the complaints.
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Wong Kwan-yu, president of the pro-establishment Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said the group had not received any request from the teachers for help.
He also agreed it would be “ideal” if the teachers were given a chance to respond before the bureau decided whether their cases could be substantiated or not. But he said the teachers could appeal following the existing mechanisms if they found the ruling unfair.
The bureau earlier said follow-up actions were yet to be decided for most of the cases in which they found wrongdoings. The actions could include issuance of warnings, reprimands or even deregistration.
It said in a reply on Thursday that teachers had “abundant opportunities” to respond to the allegations, as the schools should provide their explanations while forwarding to it any complaint of wrongdoings.
Police caution against rise in arrests of students over anti-government protests
Separately, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung issued a letter to teachers, students and parents on Thursday, sending season’s greetings, while adding he was “saddened and worried” by the arrests of students and teachers in protest-related offences.
Yeung also said in the letter that complaints about teachers’ professional misconduct would be seriously followed up and deregistration would be considered where the nature of the case was found to be serious enough.
He took the occasion to reiterate to students they should not organise or take part in activities expressing any kind of political stance, including chanting slogans and forming human chains in schools.
