The “Map of Sexual Harassment in Romania’s Education System” was published by the Rise Project and includes 268 cases of sexual violence and harassment in the country’s schools and universities, with journalists showing that most of the accused teachers are still teaching.

The database collects in the form of an interactive map cases registered in recent years of teachers accused of sexual harassment and violence against pupils or students in an educational institution in the country, the map is not complete.

A total of 268 cases were registered, of which 45 went to court between 2017 and 2022, and 25 teachers were convicted. Another 58 cases did not reach court, but instead were documented and published in the press.

Of the total number of registered cases, 165 were collected from the testimonies of people who filled out the form posted on the riseproject.ro website.

Most of the teachers who were included in the Map of Sexual Harassment in the Romanian Education System are still teaching, many even in schools where the abuse is believed to have taken place.

Bucharest has the most cases (70), followed by Cluj, Iasi, Maramures and Galați with 11-12 cases each, according to data from the Rise Project.

The youngest victim was only 7 years old, and the accused teachers range in age from 21 to 80 years old. As for the subjects they teach, the most offenders teach physical education (42), followed by mathematics (23) and history (12).

The perpetrators were mostly men and the victims girls and women, but there were also cases where boys and men were the victims, and in only one case was a woman the perpetrator of the violence. The abuse occurred both online and in real life at the teacher’s home, in the classroom, at the school, or in the teacher’s car. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)