Print

Mail

wiki links

Amendment aims to curb sexual abuse

The legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Teacher’s Act (教師法) and related resolutions designed to provide students with a learning environment free from sexual abuse or sexual harassment.

The amendment plugs a loophole in current legislation that allows teachers implicated in sexual abuse cases to continue teaching in schools

The amendment stipulates that a teacher review committee must suspend any teacher allegedly involved in sexual abuse from duty within a month of the alleged incident and refer the case for investigation by the school’s gender equality committee.

The offender can be dismissed, suspended or denied renewed employment should the investigation determine the allegation to be true.

At present, committees, which are usually composed of other teachers or administrators, sometimes fail to act against one of their own and through indecision or inaction allow teachers found guilty by the gender equity education committee to continue teaching, sometime for years. That practice has resulted in some suspects repeating their crimes.

Article 14 of the Act, which covers actions for which teachers can have their contracts terminated, contains a clause that censures “conduct unbecoming of a teacher,” but it was too vague to ensure teachers implicated in sexual offenses were kept out of the classroom.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Nancy Chao (趙麗雲) said she hoped the revised rules would deter teachers from abusing a position of authority to sexually harass pupils.

Under the non-binding adjunct resolutions, a gender equality committee is required to complete its investigation into an alleged case within one month, while personnel in charge of handling the allegations could be given a major demerit by the Ministry of Education (MOE) should they try to cover up any case.

The MOE will also invite judicial personnel to take part in cultivating investigative talent and helping schools conduct proper investigations.

The amendments also suggested that schools, while conducting the probe, should invite social workers or police to help.

Meanwhile, the legislature also passed an amendment to the Statute for Developing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (中小企業發展條例) granting the government the legal basis to establish a fund to help local governments promote township industries.

Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠), deputy minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said that the government will appropriate NT$1 billion (US$30.78 million) for the fund in the first year.

Also passed at the legislature was an amendment to the Labor Insurance Regulations (勞工保險條例) to finance indebted workers unable to make payments on their relief loans.

The amendment could potentially relieve the burden for 100,000 laborers, said KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍).


This story has been viewed 955 times.