Fu Jen Catholic University president Chiang Han-sun (江漢聲) yesterday apologized over the school’s handling of a rape case, saying that as president, he was duty-bound to express regret and sadness for the university’s failure to protect the victim from ongoing psychological pain.
A psychology major surnamed Wu (吳) was allegedly raped at an event in June last year by a student in the same department.
In May, Wu’s boyfriend posted an article on Facebook criticizing comments made by the university’s College of Social Sciences dean Hsia Lin-ching (夏林清).
He accused the dean of covering up the case, which he said had caused the victim further harm.
Wu apologized to Hsia and those involved in the case on Facebook.
The post provoked outrage among netizens, with many questioning why a sexual assault victim should be made to apologize, with some questioning if she had been forced to do so.
Control Yuan member Yang Mei-ling (楊美鈴) is investigating the case and whether the university has been negligent in its responsibilities.
The university on Friday at a news conference announced Hsia had been suspended from her duties at the recommendation of the school’s gender equality committee.
The Ministry of Education also released a statement saying that it had issued a notice to the university that its handling of the sexual assault case violated the Gender Equality Education Act (性別平等教育法) and demanded that the school provide a proposal to improve their response to the case by Oct. 31.
Failure to meet the school’s gender equality committee’s demands will lead to penalties, the ministry said.
Hacker collective Anonymous’ Hong Kong branch on Saturday said on Facebook that the university’s Web site had been disabled at 1:30pm.
The hack was aimed at prompting the university to settle the case before Oct. 20 by bringing the alleged rapist, Wang (王), to justice and an official apology for Wu.
Chiang said the school will always stand by its students and the case is being investigated by a third party, adding that he hopes the school, students and teachers can return to peace.
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