HCMC teacher resigns on accusations of child molestation

Ho Tan Minh, office chief of the municipal Department of Education and Training, said Friday that a male teacher at Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary School has "recognized his mistakes and asked for unpaid leave" until his retirement days.

The teacher, whose identity has not been revealed, will reach his retirement age, which is 60 years and nine months, on December 1 this year.

The controversy started when a woman posted on social media that her eight-grade niece in said math teacher’s class was scared and worried because the teacher kept harassing her and her girlfriends at school.

A photo provided by an aunt of an eighth grader in Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary School in HCMC's Nha Be District shows the male teacher allegedly molesting a female student.

The woman's post claimed that girl wanted help and that the teacher had touched her private parts.

The teenage girl also said the teacher had touched her and her friends’ breasts and thighs, according to the woman’s social media post.

The girls were too scared to tell their parents and were afraid the teacher would treat them even worse at school if they told, the post said.

"That girl said this math teacher promised to buy her and her friends gifts, and even asked them if they want some underwear," the woman said in her post.

The girl in question’s mother was reported to have come to the school to meet with the math teacher and other school representatives on June 8, but the teacher told her that he only accidentally touched a student’s thigh when bending down to pick up his belongings.

According to Nha Be authorities, the school suspended the teacher on Friday and asked him to submit a report on the incident.

School representatives and district education officials have met with the affected students and their parents to apologize.

District investigators have been ordered to continue verifying and handling the case.

In February, a 52-year-old teacher at a primary school in Nghe An Province was arrested after parents accused him of molesting a schoolgirl.

In April, police in Dong Thap Province arrested a teacher for raping five schoolboys on various occasions at an elementary school.