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Support for teacher who won case after searching backpack

Education agencies as well as teachers and parents associations have thrown their support behind a teacher who was acquitted on privacy infringement charges after inspecting a student's backpack.

The support came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the parents of the student against the teacher, surnamed Lei, for violating their child's privacy by searching the student's backpack.

Lei works at a junior high school in Taipei City.

The child's parents sought NT$1 million (US$31,000) in compensation.

However, the Taipei District Court ruled in favor of Lei on the grounds that searching backpacks was part of a teachers' duty when providing student counseling and guidance.

right

Yang Yi-fung (楊益風), a spokesman for the National Teachers' Association, said that teachers have the right to conduct searches in accordance with a tobacco and drug prevention project formulated by the Ministry of Education.

He added that if there was a problem, the responsibility lies with policymakers, not policy implementers.

The spokesman said that from a legal perspective, there was nothing incorrect about the teacher's behavior, and urged the public not to blow the incident out of proportion.

Legitimate

Meanwhile, Lin Wen-hu (林文虎), deputy director of the National Alliance of Parents organization, said that the court ruling guarantees the scope of teachers' legitimate power to educate students.

But he stressed that teachers should be supervised by a class representative or a third party while conducting a search of a student's personal property.

An official with the Taipei City Government's Department of Education also noted that teachers and instructors are empowered to search students' backpacks in the event of emergency situations or for the sake of campus safety.
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