Civic groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Education (MOE) to bring in social workers to schools to provide counseling for problematic students.
The call came in the wake of recent allegations that the former principal of Taoyuan County’s Bade Junior High School, Wu Chia-ku (於家穀), repeatedly turned a blind eye to the worsening safety situation at her school.
Vita Yeh (葉大華), secretary-general of the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, told a press conference yesterday that formulating an anti-bullying law or isolating bullies would not help solve the problem.
Yeh called on the government to earmark between NT$1 billion (US$33.5 million) and NT$2 billion every year to recruit school social workers or guidance counselors.
Garden of Hope Foundation executive director Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), who also attended the conference, said social workers can help schools seek the resources they need to deal with bullying.
The National Teachers Association also issued a statement, saying that local and foreign movies and the adult world have misled teenagers into believing that they can overwhelm other people with physical or verbal violence while failing to teach them the potential legal consequences they could face.
The association called on the ministry to oblige schools to fully explain related legal -responsibilities to students as soon as students enroll in the schools and refer those who have committed an offense to prosecutors.
Meanwhile, some students at Bade Junior High School reportedly threw firecrackers at a teacher when the teacher went to the toilet on Tuesday despite Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji’s (吳清基) surprise visit there that day.
Acting principal Tai Chin-ming (戴進明) said the accused students did not admit any wrongdoing, but Tai vowed to probe the allegation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard