A law that would give boards of education greater authority to bar teachers accused of sexual misconduct from the classroom is expected to be enacted in the current Diet session this upcoming week.
On Friday, the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology voted unanimously to submit the new law on the prevention of sexual violence against students to the lower house for deliberation, on the recommendation of the committee chairman.
The crux of the bill is a provision that would allow prefectural boards of education to decide whether to reissue licenses to teachers who have been dismissed on disciplinary grounds for indecent behavior.
Under the current Education Personnel Certification Law, teachers who have had their licenses revoked after being disciplined or dismissed for lewd acts or other misconduct are still able to reacquire teaching licenses after a period of three years.
The new bill seeks to close this loophole by providing clear recourse for each board of education to solicit the input from a panel of experts when determining whether to reissue licenses to teachers who have been disciplined for sexual harassment of students.
The legislation includes a new framework under which boards of education would be given the discretionary power to deny licenses and bar applicants from returning to the classroom depending on the state of their rehabilitation. It also includes a clause that would recognize the serious lifelong physical and psychological effects on victims by defining such indecent acts as "sexual violence against students."
The bill will be voted on in plenary sessions of both houses of the Diet and is expected to be passed as early as the end of the week.
According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, 273 teachers were disciplined for indecent acts and sexual harassment at institutions including public elementary, junior high and high schools in fiscal 2019. The figure was the second-highest on record.
A survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun found that at least 945 children fell victim to sexual abuse by teachers working at their schools in the five years through fiscal 2019.
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