Inspired by the stabbing rampage on Taipei’s MRT system last year, students in Chih-Kwang Senior Vocational Business and Technology High School’s multimedia department came up with the idea of turning an umbrella into a weapon of self-defense by placing a can of mace in the handle.
During a graduation exhibition on Monday, students at the New Taipei City school said they have developed a “multipurpose defensive umbrella.”
Student Fei Chun-chi (斐俊期) said that many people have been scared of taking the MRT since last year’s stabbing rampage, and that most MRT riders are not equipped to defend themselves against potential assailants. Fei said the students’ goal was to equip everyday items with defensive capabilities.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
Student Huang Ssu-kai (黃思凱) said the group had originally thought of hiding a cone-shaped blade in an umbrella handle to “combat violence with violence,” but MRT regulations bar passengers from carrying weapons.
As the goal was to deter an assailant, not to cause further harm, the students thought of making an umbrella handle into an extendable baton, Huang said.
However, if the user was under stress, they might fumble and not be able to extend the baton, he said.
After some more brainstorming, the students came up with the idea of mace spray that would allow users to fend off an assailant’s advances with the umbrella itself, as well as using the mace to disorient the attacker and buy time for police officers to arrive, Huang said.
The students said they were looking to strengthen the umbrella’s fabric as well as reinforce its frame, while keeping an eye on its total weight.
“We hope to produce something that will truly combine the utility of an umbrella while meeting the need for a self-defense tool,” the group said.
Four people were killed and more than a score injured on May 21 last year when 21-year-old Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) began stabbing other MRT passengers as their train traveled from Jiangzicui Station to Longshan Temple Station.
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
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner