Recently, the topic of teacher-student love has aroused widespread attention and discussion on the Internet. This article focuses on teacher-student love**, because many netizens wondered: How does the law treat teacher-student love, and is there a corresponding legal regulation?
In a particular mode of getting along, students who are not well versed in the world may become obsessed with or even adored their teachers for various reasons. In particular, if one party is underage, no matter who is teasing whom, whether he agrees or not, it is a kind of "exploitation of the superior to the inferior". And it's not just a moral issue, it's a legal issue. The existence of teacher-student love can easily lead to power rent-seeking and potential injustice to other students, and teacher-student love can easily be transformed into sexual harassment or even more serious crimes. Therefore, the regulation of teacher-student love in many countries tends to be strict, whether it is developed or developing, most of them prohibit teacher-student love, and there are some sentencing cases, and there are also precedents in China.
As for what law is violated by teacher-student love, I'm afraid it's hard to answer in one sentence. Because the situation behind the teacher-student relationship is more complicated, such as the gender of the teacher and the age of the students, it will affect the judgment of the nature of the event. In general, teacher-student love may be suspected of a crime - the crime of a person with a duty of care or suspected of sexual harassment, violating laws and regulations such as the Teacher Law and the Protection of Minors, and no matter how minor the circumstances are, it will also violate the professional ethics of teachers.
In the Amendment (11) to the Criminal Law that came into effect in 2021, the teacher-student relationship between the two parties who have sexual intercourse will be included in the scope of the Criminal Law, and the crime of "persons with care duties" has been added: a person who has special duties such as guardianship, adoption, care, education, and medical treatment for a minor female who has reached the age of 14 but is under the age of 16, and has sexual relations with the minor female, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years; where the circumstances are heinous, the sentence is between three and ten years imprisonment. This means that if a female student is under the age of 16, the male teacher will still be held criminally responsible, even if it is a willing relationship.
It is important to note that this offence has a distinct gender identity, and if the caregiver is a woman, it is not within the scope of this offence. In addition, in the teacher-student relationship in practice, there are also controversies about whether criminal liability can be pursued for the relevant crimes of ** if there is no sexual act but other intimate actions. Some people ask, the criminal law does not need to increase the crackdown, continue to raise the age of sexual consent, or control female teachers? This is not an unfounded problem, but shows that in order to do a good job in the protection of minors and the construction of a friendly environment on campus, and draw a "safety line" for teachers and students on campus, in addition to a criminal law, the systematic linkage of other laws and regulations is needed to complete.
For example, the Civil Code, the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, and the Protection of Minors have made a negative evaluation of the use of sexual harassment by teachers and students who are outside the "range" of the Criminal Law. Teacher-student love does not necessarily constitute sexual harassment, but due to the unequal power and status between teachers and students, it is likely that the student's consent is not really consent. The determination of consent is closely related to the age of the student, and it is generally believed that the younger the student, the less able he or she is to truly consent. Therefore, the daily saying "he is young and ignorant, are you still ignorant when you are old" can be used to blame teachers in campus sexual harassment incidents, and the teacher should naturally bear a higher duty of care based on the superior position in the relationship, and cannot use his or her behavior as "popular" or "the other party is willing" as a defense.
At the same time, the Civil Code stipulates that "government agencies, enterprises, schools and other units shall take reasonable measures such as prevention, acceptance of complaints, investigation and handling, etc., to prevent and stop sexual harassment by taking advantage of their authority and subordinate relationships." Article 40 of the "Protection of Minors" also stipulates: "Schools and kindergartens shall establish a work system for preventing harm and sexual harassment of minors. It can be seen that the place where teacher-student love takes place, the school, also bears the legal obligation to prevent teacher-student love. Therefore, as a school, how to establish a working system to effectively prevent and scientifically deal with teacher-student love and even sexual harassment will also become an important topic in the next few years.
From the perspective of teachers' professional ethics, teacher-student love is also an obvious illegal act. In 2018, the Ministry of Education clearly stipulated in the "Ten Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of Teachers in Colleges and Universities in the New Era" and the "Ten Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in the New Era" that no improper relationship should be had with students. In the Teachers Law, it is also mentioned that if a teacher has bad conduct, insults students, and has a bad impact, he or she shall be given an administrative sanction or dismissed by the school, other educational institutions or educational administrative departments.
To sum up the laws and regulations, even college students and graduate students who are adults are still restricted from falling in love with teachers. Although adults have the freedom to fall in love, once the teacher-student love occurs, the teacher may be revoked from the teacher's qualifications, dismissed from the teacher's position, and at the same time must be entered into the national teacher management information system, the cost is not huge, which also shows China's high-pressure attitude towards teacher-student love.
The author has a discovery that after the relevant news events were published, many people realized the problem of teacher-student love and showed a strong disgust. I remember that there is a popular ** called "Outside the Window", which tells the story of a girl's fruitless love with a teacher, and now this ** has been criticized by some people. This represents a kind of progress, which means that society as a whole will take a harsher attitude towards these things that were once unacceptable. Therefore, the law is improving, and society is also progressing. This rise in collective consciousness is also imperceptibly promoting the process of rule of law.
Red Star Review, by Chen Bi).