Honorable Prime Minister, Education Minister, Health Minister, Vice Chancellor (RUB), Executive Director (NCWC), and Chief of Police,

A group of students in Sherubtse college is standing against the longstanding sexism and sexual violence in the college with the submission of this petition to the higest levels appealing to remove the lecturer, in light of recent sexual harassment complaint made by 10 students against him in Sherubtse college. Students who have witnessed sexual violence and those who were subjected to it were unforthcoming until now, with the survivors reporting it to the management and this petition as a symbol of our solidarity with the suvivors.

Many of us were dismayed at the response provided by our college president to the Bhutanese paper, equally blaming the affected students and blatantly invalidating their bitter experiences of being sexually harassed, body shamed, and having suicidal thoughts because of the assaulter. Regardless of the trauma students underwent, the college decided to merely withhold the promotion of the perpetrator for three years. In other words, a perpetrator will still be on the loose whereas students, especially the female students will constantly have to live and attend his classes in fear which will translate into poor mental health. In a worst case scenario, the assaulter will prey on more students which will also result in motivating other predators to act upon their thoughts making our college an unsafe place to study. As a byproduct of this lenient penalty, people including students will judge the survivors for tainting the reputation of the lecturer further stigmatizing the survivors and no one experiencing sexual harassment will ever come forth again. Sadly, violence against children, women and girls will never be eliminated or even reduced in this manner.

For your kind information, the assaulter had violated college rules previously but not reprimanded as per the college president. The rumour says another lecturer was sacked with similar issue of sexual harassment but this particular lecturer is not facing any serious consequences because he is a relative of the president. The assaulter apparently has a history of sexual offenses in the present college, in Taktse College where he previously taught and when he also taught in Yoezerling Higher Secondary School in 2014. All of these surfaced on the internet after the news on the complaint made by the 10 students in Sherubtse college broke out which has helped to shed light on the truth of assaulter being most likely a serial sex offender who was never reported. Currently, few of the students who are close to the survivors are aware of them and only 3 of the 10 have disclosed their identities when they represented the survivors to report the issues to the management. Their classmates and other students of the assaulter wishes to confirm the harassment but the fear of being targeted by the assaulter in case no serious action is taken against him has consumed them.

While we do understand that another level of investigation is required, we hope that the investigation will leave no stone unturned and deliver justice to the traumatized students. Therefore, on behalf of survivors, a group of students in Shertubse college is kindly submitting this petition with more than 1000 signatures before the highest authorities requesting for the removal of the lecturer in question for the greater good of the college and society.

We trust in you.

Yours sincerely,