National Taiwan University (NTU) students disapproved of a “crude” prohibition by campus authorities of a long-standing practice of dressing as ghosts to scare freshmen during a camping event.
The school authority said that student clubs who engage in this sort of activity would see their club subsidies cut.
Calling the school’s decision “crude,” NTU student association chairperson Lee Hsin-wen (李心文) said she did not feel scared when she took part in the activity, calling it a traditional activity for clubs and departmental student associations.
Saying that the camping events rarely rely on funds granted by the school, as participants pay to play, Lee said the student association would negotiate with NTU faculty.
Recent NTU graduate Kuo Chia-yo (郭家佑) had experienced the same activity at National Chengchi University as well as National Tsing Hua University, and said it frightened her to tears.
However, she added, it was her decision to participate, just as other students can also decide whether they would like to participate. The school’s ban is “inappropriate,” she said.
NTU director of student affairs Chen Tsung-fu (陳聰富) said the school issued the ban because students and teachers have filed complaints about students pretending to be ghosts, with at least one disapproving of students frightening people after 11pm.
“It would be unthinkable if this type of activity gives people a heart attack and students would have to face legal responsibilities,” the unidentified complainant said.
Saying that he has never been bothered by the practice, department of political science professor Lee Mao-sheng (李茂生) said that the school issued the ban to avoid legal liability.
National Taiwan University Hospital emergency medicine physician Shih Fu-yuan (石富元) said that people with heart disease may experience irregular heartbeat after sudden frights. Sudden fright is also dangerous for people who have cerebral vascular tumors, as the tumor might rupture, he said.
Lawyer Huang Kuo-cheng (黃國城) said that if a prank causes someone to suffer injury or leads to death, the prankster would face charges ranging from unintentional assault to manslaughter.
He cited the Code of Civic Procedure (民事訴訟法) as saying that if someone is “scared to death” by a prank, the family members of the deceased may demand compensation from the prankster and that if a prankster inflicts any form of physical or psychological injury upon someone, the victim may also press charges.
Additional reporting by Chang Wen-chuang
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