A high school student, accompanied by her mother and a city councilor, returned to her former school yesterday in an attempt to get school authorities to take responsibility for her injuries after she was brutally beaten by a teacher on June 19.
According to Taichung City Councilor Ho Wen-hai (
Her teacher, surnamed Wang, allegedly punished her because Yeh scored just 53 points on her geography examination, far below the standard grade of 85 set by Wang.
"The teacher beat me very severely on the buttocks with a big stick," Yeh said. "More than 30 students failed to meet the minimum requirement, and so the teacher punished us one after another."
The girl added that the teacher vented anger against her because another student had spoken back to Wang, provoking the teacher to hit Yeh hard.
"When my daughter came back from school after she had been beaten, she told me she did not feel well," Yeh's mother said. "I took her to the hospital for a check up, and found out she was suffering from hematuria, or a bleeding kidney.
"My daughter used to be a gymnast, yet she was forced to drop out from the team because of the severity of her injuries. How could such a thing happen at school? My child went to school with a healthy body only to come back with a serious physical injury. If her kidney is permanently damaged, what can we do?"
Liu Chin-chung (
"I launched an immediate investigation after having received the report. I subsequently requested the teacher to hand in a letter of confession," Liu said. "I asked the parent to take her daughter for a physical examination to find out if the injury had resulted from the teacher's disciplinary action, but so far I have not heard any response from them. I did not expect they would make another complaint."
The teacher conceded that she had beaten the student once on the buttocks, and nowhere else. According to Liu, the teacher had acknowledged that her behavior was not acceptable.
But Liu claimed that she meted out the punishment for one reason only: the deeper the love, the harsher the discipline (愛之深,責之切).
Reports said the girl was transferred to An-ho Junior High School (安和國中) because of the incident.
As accounts of the incident from school authorities and the victim's family differ greatly, the Education Bureau of the Taichung City Government has launched an inquiry into the incident.
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