As a teacher
Sexual harassment of a female student
The authorities will take this seriously and make a public announcement
The relevant content was also recorded and published by a certain entry platform
The unscrupulous teacher sued the court for this
Request the deletion of the entry
Court: "'Zero tolerance' for violations of teacher ethics!" ”
The Ministry of Education's "Notice on Promoting the Access and Inquiry of Faculty and Staff" clearly stipulates that teachers and staff to be hired by primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning need to inquire about sexual assault crimes and information on the loss or revocation of teacher qualifications before entering the job, so as to further strengthen the construction of teacher ethics and teacher style, and "zero tolerance" for teacher ethics violations.
All the time
The teacher's ethics and style have also attracted the attention of public opinion
Let's take a look at today's case!
01
Case review
Plaintiff Zhang San was a former teacher at a college, and during his tenure, he was punished for sexually harassing a female student at the college.
In 2021, a user created the entry "Zhang San" on a certain entry operation platform, which recorded Zhang San's sexual harassment of female students and the punishment result. After comparison, the content recorded in the entry "Zhang San" is consistent with the content of the official department's public notice, and a link to the content of the official notice is attached at the end of the entry.
Zhang San believes that the expression of sexual harassment in the entry "Zhang San" created under his name affects his re-employment in the field of education. After repeatedly complaining to the entry operation platform and requesting the deletion of the entry to no avail, Zhang San sued the entry operation platform to the Beijing Internet Court, requesting the court to order the entry operation platform to delete the entry "Zhang San" on the grounds of infringing on his right to reputation and privacy.
02
Heard by the courts
After trial, the court held that the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China stipulates that civil subjects enjoy the right to reputation, and no organization or individual may infringe upon the right to reputation of others by insulting, slandering, or other means. Reputation is the social evaluation of the character, prestige, talent, and credit of a civil subject. Natural persons have the right to privacy. The privacy rights of others must not be infringed upon by any organization or individual through methods such as espionage, intrusion, leakage, or disclosure. Where network users or network service providers use networks to infringe upon the civil rights and interests of others, they shall bear tort liability.
Based on the information submitted by the entry operation platform, the rules for including and editing the entry, and so forth, it may be proved that the operation platform of the entry involved in the case is an open platform that provides knowledge to internet users based on the content of the entry created and edited by the user, and that the entry operation platform should bear the corresponding responsibility as a network service provider.
Court decision
Plaintiff Zhang San's claim was rejected. At present, the judgment in this case has taken effect.
03
Legal analysis
In this case, firstly, the term "sexual harassment" in the entries involved in the case originated from the characterization of Zhang San's conduct by the official department, and the content of the entries involved in the case was completely excerpted from the notice of the official department, which was information that had been made public, and there were no illegal acts such as insult, defamation, and disclosure of privacy by the editing users of the entries involved in the case and the operation platform of the entries.
Secondly, the entry has the public service attribute of enabling the public to retrieve relevant information and determine the details of relevant subjects and events. The content of the entries involved in the case involves situations where the rights and interests of female students are harmed, that is, the issue of protecting the rights and interests of vulnerable groups, and where the relevant departments have made clear determinations and punishments for Zhang San's conduct, and authoritative media have reported the facts involved in Zhang San, they shall be retained, to ensure the public's right to know.
In summary, as a network service provider, the entry operation platform involved in the case did not constitute an infringement of the plaintiff Zhang San's right to reputation and privacy, and there was no fault, and Zhang San's claim that the entry operation platform delete the entry "Zhang San" lacked factual and legal basis and was not supported by the court.
Teacher ethics and style are the first criteria for evaluating the quality of teachers. The fact that some teachers who violated the ethics of teaching and wanted to make the incident unknown by deleting the content of the entry is not only unfair to the victims and the wider vulnerable groups who may be harmed, but also buries the possibility of secondary harm. The punishment of such matters and the announcement of the punishment is a warning to other practitioners in the field of colleges and universities, and it is also a protection for the majority of vulnerable groups.
Next
Please learn from Pu Pu Jun
Article 37 of the Teachers Law
Teachers Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 37: In any of the following circumstances, teachers are to be given administrative sanctions or dismissed by their schools, other educational establishments, or administrative departments for education:
(1) Intentionally not completing education and teaching tasks, causing losses to education and teaching work;
(2) Corporal punishment of students, who do not change after education;
(3) Bad conduct, insulting students, and having a bad impact.
Where teachers have any of the circumstances listed in items (2) and (3) of the preceding paragraph, and the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law.
Article source: Guangdong law popularization comprehensive collation, the main content is from the Beijing Internet Court