Update: SOTA teacher denies sexual misconduct allegations, plans to take legal action
The School of the Arts Singapore, or SOTA, said today that an alleged sexual harassment incident involving one of its instructors took place prior to his employment there.
The school said that although the alleged incident involving instructor Jason Lim, one of dozens of men accused of sexual misconduct recently, happened close to a decade ago, it has barred him from interacting with students.
“The alleged incident involving the teacher mentioned in the durian.dot account took place prior to him joining SOTA. Nevertheless, since being alerted to these allegations, SOTA has engaged the teacher and will ensure that he has no contact with students until this matter is resolved,” the school wrote.
The charges against Lim were among about 20 others reportedly accused last week by the Durian.dot Instagram account of behavior, some involving minors, of sexual harassment, assault and statutory rape. The account has since been deactivated. SOTA said today that, of them all, only Lim and “a few former students” were involved.
Lim, who has been teaching ceramics since 2012 according to his LinkedIn profile, was described in one of the posts as “stroking” a 19-year-old student’s hand while sharing a cab and trying to entice her to go home with him. Another accused was a student sharing upskirt photos.
Singapore performance artist Chand Chandramohan on Monday reported Lim to the police for allegedly harassing and “doxxing” her due to his belief she was behind the account.
Lim has not responded to messages requesting comment since yesterday. The police have confirmed that investigations are ongoing but declined to comment further.
SOTA continues to call upon individuals to step forward with more information on the allegations.
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