Kampong Chhnang provincial military police officials are investigating the case of a secondary-school teacher accused of sexually harassing his female students.

According to Chuon Choeun, provincial military police commander, the parents of four female students, aged 13 to 14, filed a complaint to him against a 35-year-old teacher for touching the girls’ breasts and hugging them inappropriately.

“I called the teacher to question him about the accusation, but he denied that it was true,” he said.

Choeun added that he cannot detain the teacher due to a lack of evidence, but he will continue to investigate.

The students’ parents also went to the provincial education department on Monday to demand that the teacher be fired from his job.

Department director Pich Sambo, said yesterday that he had informed the Education Ministry of the case and was awaiting a decision on whether the teacher would be fired.

“I have not yet received a response from the ministry, but I will stop him from teaching to avoid chaos from the students’ parents,” he said.

Lay Im, a program officer for rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that parents had filed a complaint with his office.

“We received the same complaint, and we will investigate this case as well,” she said. “They demanded compensation and for him to be punished by law.”

Im added that the students told her the teacher had been touching them inappropriately since last year, but they decided not to tell anyone when the he threatened to fail them.

The parents and the accused teacher could not be reached for comment yesterday.