By Lee Kyung-min
A former teaching assistant at Korea University (KU) has filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) claiming she was fired after reporting her former professor to police for sexual harassment, the human rights watchdog said Wednesday.
According to the NHRC, the woman, whose identity is being withheld, recently submitted a petition claiming she was wrongfully terminated from the teaching assistant position and almost expelled from the university in Seoul.
In the petition, the student said her professor asked her out to a bar near the school, saying he would give her advice on writing her thesis, Nov. 24 last year. Another professor from a different university was also present.
At the bar, she claimed, she was sexually harassed by the KU professor and verbally abused by the other.
She filed a complaint with Seongbuk Police Station in northern Seoul against the two. Police referred the case to the prosecution with the recommendation that the KU professor not be indicted, while the other professor should. The prosecution investigation is ongoing.
On Nov. 29, the student was notified by the school that she was dismissed from the teaching assistant position and asked to return her scholarship in full. She was denied entry to the school teaching assistants’ office from last December.
She sought to continue her academic work by requesting a different professor, but neither the university’s gender equality center nor the dean helped her.
In February, she sought to take a leave of absence for a semester, but the professor refused to grant it.
The school expelled her March 28 for failing to register in time for the spring semester, an administrative measure she managed to get canceled after filing a petition with the Ministry of Education. The ministry ordered the school to accept her request seeking leave.
In response, Korea University said her dismissal was due to her poor performance, and not relevant to her reporting the professor to the police. It added that the expulsion was due to a technical mistake.
The student claimed she fulfilled due requirements that were discussed earlier with the professor, adding that the school unjustly punished her because she reported the school faculty member’s wrongdoing.