Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, the Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF) and the mother of a sexual assault victim yesterday lashed out at the Ministry of Education (MOE), accusing it of failing to help victims of sexual assaults from a special education school.
The mother said the ministry had reneged on its promise to compensate her.
News of the sexual assaults, committed by faculty and staff members on mentally challenged students at a special education school run by the ministry in the south, surfaced last year.
A probe followed and it was discovered that in addition to teachers and school staff who committed the crimes, many others had either witnessed the crimes or had heard reports from horrified students, but had failed to act on what they saw or heard. They are required by law to report such matters to the ministry and the police.
Accompanied by DPP legislators Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), and HEF social worker Chang Ping (張萍), a mother of a student from the school — who wishes to remain anonymous — recounted what happened after the ministry’s promise last year to help her apply for state compensation.
“To be honest, I don’t care about the money, because even if the state paid me NT$10 million [US$338,000], I would not have allowed that to happen to my child,” the mother said. “But the MOE is not showing the slightest sincerity in fulfilling its promise to help us.”
The ministry’s Central Region Office deputy director Yang Mao-shou (楊茂壽), who attended the news conference, denied the ministry had done nothing to help.
“Actually, as far as I know, the school and the parents met on Feb. 24 for negotiations,” Yang said.
However, Tien rebutted Yang’s claim. When asked whether there was a ministry official at the meeting, Yang admitted there was none, but added: “The school is the primary party responsible for dealing with the compensation.”
The mother said the meeting could hardly be considered a negotiation because, out of the five parents who have applied for state compensation on behalf of their children, the school only asked two of them to attend, and that during the meeting, the school repeatedly asked them to drop their complaint, promising to help the students stay in school and find employment instead.
The exchange between Yang and the mother infuriated the lawmakers. They pressed Yang to set a date for a formal meeting with representatives from the school and the ministry, with all five parents in attendance.
Yang initially only agreed to “look into the issue” and “make further arrangements.” However, the three lawmakers pressed for a deadline and Yang eventually agreed to call for a meeting next week.
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