A mother of a student with special needs yesterday accused a special education school in Greater Tainan of covering up the abusive punishments that her daughter suffered at the hands of her teachers.
The claim came just days after a similar accusation was leveled at the school.
A parent of a student with learning difficulties on Monday held a press conference alongside Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) legislators and Humanistic Education Foundation representatives to say that her son was mistreated at National Tainan Special School.
She said he was beaten by the teacher on the chest and strangled, and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another mother spoke out yesterday, accompanied by DDP lawmakers and the foundation’s director. She told a press conference held in Taipei that she was encouraged by the previous story and was determined to disclose the matter.
The mother, surnamed Tsai (蔡), said her daughter, who was a student at the institution’s vocational school, had two operations on a broken arm caused by a teacher in 2012, offering the relevant medical reports as proof.
She chose to remain quiet about the injury, she said, as she was reluctant to ruin the career of a professionally trained special education teacher.
However, four months later, her daughter came home with bruised and swollen thighs and buttocks, holding “a note to the parents that the student needed ‘rigorous punishment,’” she said.
“The then-school director asked me to forgive the teacher, saying he was not married and did not have children,” Tsai said.
The girl was subsequently required by the school to sit in a specially made wooden chair to restrict her mobility.
“The school later moved the teacher from the senior-high school to the junior-high school without initiating any investigation into the incident,” DDP Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) said.
The foundation said that after the father of the student filed a complaint, he was called in by the Ministry of Education and asked to forgive the teacher.
DDP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) demanded that the ministry investigate the incident immediately.
The allegation was denied by a ministry official present at the press conference, who said administrative records show that the ministry “had followed due procedures for the claim of abuse, giving demerit points and demoting the perpetrator.”
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