A group of people claiming to be students at Fu Jen Catholic University’s Department of Psychology yesterday stormed into a meeting room at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, demanding that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) explain remarks she made about College of Social Sciences dean Hsia Lin-ching (夏林清) regarding a sexual assault incident on the school’s campus.
The group shouted slogans and brandished flyers that said Hsia was framed by the university and bullied by Wu, who recommended that the school more severely punish Hsia over her handling of the case.
Wu was not in the room at the time, while the intruders were promptly escorted away by police.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
It was the second such incident after two students at the department, Lin Chien-yu (林建宇) and Tseng Hsin-yi (曾信毅), earlier this month attempted to enter a room at the legislature to hand a petition to Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠).
Lin and Tseng said the victim of the sexual assault, surnamed Wu (巫), and her boyfriend, surnamed Chu (朱), fabricated allegations against Hsia.
Wu and Chu had agreed to stop seeing each other before the incident, they said, adding that Wu had been close to the assailant, a student surnamed Wang (王).
Hsia last year held a meeting of the department’s faculty and students, at which the couple were reportedly grilled for accusing Hsia and the department of attempting to cover up the incident.
Hsia’s handling of the incident sparked a widespread outrage, culminating in the school’s Gender Equality Committee last month saying that she would be suspended for one year.
The New Taipei City District Court sentenced Wang to a prison term of 42 months, which can be appealed.
Rosalia Wu yesterday said that she delivered Lin and Tseng’s petition to Pan, who promised to form an investigation committee to determine whether Hsia’s punishment was proportionate.
Ministry of Education Department of Student Affairs and Special Education Director Cheng Nai-wen (鄭乃文) said that the department would hold a Gender Equality Education Committee meeting next week at the soonest to determine whether the university should reinvestigate the case.
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