TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Legislative Yuan passed the Gender Equality Education Act on Friday (July 28), strengthening protections for campus gender-related incidents.
Among other highlights, student representatives can now participate in gender equality education committees. Also, violations by school principals or faculty members may result in lifelong termination.
The final reading further included an explicit warning against student-teacher romances. Relationships of an intimate nature are prohibited for minors, while school principals or faculty members are not allowed to exploit power imbalances to develop such relations with adult students.
Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao recently stressed that the ban on student-teacher romances specifically refers to school principals or faculty members developing unprofessional relationships within gender-related interpersonal interactions.
Lin added that, in the future, if teachers severely violate professional ethics, they may be subject to lifelong termination by the Gender Equality Committee, pending the establishment of subsequent sub-laws.
You Si-kun, president of the Legislative Yuan, decided during a party negotiation on July 26 that the controversial articles of the Gender Equality at Work Act and the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act will be voted on the final day of the interim session on July 31.