University to reinvestigate sexual harassment case

Wuhan University announced on Friday it would reinvestigate a punishment it handed out to a male student two years ago over alleged sexual harassment allegations, after a court recently ruled that the allegations were invalid.

The university in Central China's Hubei province said in a statement that it fully respects the court ruling, and has established a working team to conduct the reinvestigation.

In July 2023, a female student surnamed Yang accused a male student surnamed Xiao of sexual harassment after she said the student masturbated in her direction in the school library.

Yang used her phone to film Xiao's acts and asked him to write her an apology letter, which the male student did. She also requested the university to punish the young man.

On Oct 11, 2023, Yang published details of the incident through a WeChat account, which drew widespread public attention.

Two days later, the university issued a statement saying it had given a demerit to the male student, without mentioning the reason for the punishment.

In February 2024, Xiao's mother revealed in a Weibo post that her son suffered from atopic dermatitis, a chronic skin condition that causes inflammation and itching and was scratching himself at the school library.

The mother also said that Xiao suffered from severe PTSD from the incident and cyberbullying, and even had suicidal thoughts. She denied any sexual allegations against her son and published medical records of seeking treatment at hospitals for his skin condition.

She added that her son wrote the apology letter to avoid a public confrontation and that her parenting had made her son "timid and weak".

In June 2024, Yang filed a civil lawsuit against Xiao, accusing him of masturbating in public and sought a public apology by him for 15 days in a newspaper apart from a compensation of 5,000 yuan ($693).

The People's Court of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone ruled against Yang recently, and she published screenshots of the verdict on different social media platforms on July 25.

According to the verdict, the court said Xiao's actions could not be determined as masturbating and it was highly likely that he was scratching. The two people had no interaction for two hours in the library, during which they had both left and returned to their seats, the court said.

The videos presented by Yang showed Xiao putting his left hand between his thighs, with a slight and irregular movement. From the videos, it cannot be concluded that the defendant was "masturbating", the court added.

The incident garnered huge public attention in recent days, with some netizens starting to uncover mistakes and malpractices in Yang's graduation thesis.

In Friday's statement, the university also pledged to conduct a full investigation into Yang's graduation thesis, and will handle the case based on facts, school rules and academic code of conduct.