On 24 April 2025, the EOC initiated legal proceedings under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO), Cap. 480, in the District Court on behalf of a female secondary school student (the Claimant). The Claimant alleged that a male classmate (the Respondent) sexually harassed her on many occasions from Form 2 to Form 4. These acts included sending sexually-indecent messages to her via instant messaging app and engaging in unwelcome physical contact. Despite the Claimant’s clear, explicit and consistent rejections of these sexual harassment acts, the Respondent continued to harass her and even escalated his conduct. The Claimant found these acts of sexual harassment offending and humiliating.

As understood by the EOC, the parents and the school were involved in handling the sexual harassment case. However, the case remained unresolved. The EOC also made many attempts to facilitate settlement of the case between the two young people by way of conciliation or negotiation during the investigation and provision of legal assistance stages. Unfortunately, the attempts were unsuccessful in resolving the dispute.

Under the SDO, sexual harassment in the field of education is unlawful. Sexual harassment encompasses a person’s unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours or conduct of a sexual nature in relation to another person, such as unwelcome physical contact, sexual comments and sexual messages, and a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would anticipate that such acts would offend, humiliate or intimidate the latter person. Furthermore, in the field of education, if a student, either alone or together with others, engages in conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile or intimidating environment for another student of the same school, the former is considered to have sexually harassed the latter.

By bringing this case to court, the EOC hopes to raise awareness among students, teachers and schools about the importance of combating sexual harassment, which includes unwelcome sexual acts, comments and messages, as well as bullying within the school. It also reminds them that sexual harassment among students is unlawful and can lead to serious legal consequences.

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