(123rf)
(123rf)

A student victim of a recent sexual harassment scandal at a Seoul-based university told a local media outlet Monday that officials of the schools' human rights center contacted them after the case to pressure her not to publicize the case.

According to Pressian, the student of the Seoul Women's University met with the officials of the center in September after she publicized the case and was asked why she made the case public, and whose help she received in the process.

The professor accused of the offense last year was initially hit with a three-month wage cut by the university, and submitted his resignation in November of this year.

"The (human rights) center also said that the professor's punishment was not in any way a light one. Hearing these words when I'm in a fragile and frightened state made me feel as if I'm being threatened not to publicize the case further," the female student was quoted as saying.

The human rights center of the SWU in July of last year concluded that a professor of the school had been sexually harassing multiple students. But after the case was made public in September of this year, the students have decried what they said was lenient disciplinary action against the professor.

The professor responded by filing criminal complaints of defamation against three students, who put up a banner condemning him and the university. This led multiple protests by the professor, who did not drop the charges against the student despite his resignation.

The student victim said that she has refrained from talking about what she thought were inappropriate responses of the human rights center, since the officials of the center did help her. But she said she felt as if the university is siding with the professor in the ongoing legal dispute following the incident.

A feminist sorority of the SWU held a press conference on Thursday to denounce the university, saying that the university has been taking the side of the professor. It claimed that the school complied with the police request to hand over information about the students accused of defamation, but refused to hand over the disciplinary records of the professor in question, citing protection of personal information.

The university said that the situation appears to have been caused by misunderstanding, saying the cited comments of the human rights center officials need to be verified and that the student might have misunderstood their intent.

On not handing the disciplinary records to police, the university said a proper process must be taken before such records can be submitted. The school said it has told the police to request the documents through the proper process.


minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com