Civic groups and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei city councilors yesterday demanded that the Taipei City Government take action against education officials and school administrators implicated in the “blatant” dismissal of Zhongshan Junior High School music teacher Hsiao Hsiao-ling (蕭曉玲).
Hsiao was joined by several civic groups and DPP Taipei city councilors at a news conference in Taipei a day after Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) reinstated her.
Hsiao said that she was persecuted by school officials and then sacked in 2008 for suing then-Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) over the local government’s “one guideline, one curriculum,” education policy.
Photo: CNA
Recounting the events that led to her dismissal, Hsiao said it was “like a nightmare.”
She said that she had not expected to lose the lawsuit against Hau, as she believed she was defending teachers’ right to choose from a diversity of teaching materials.
She said that she similarly was not expecting to fail when she filed a lawsuit against the local education officials who dismissed her.
However, she failed on both counts.
“However, due to my foolhardiness, I refused to believe that fairness and justice would not be upheld,” she said.
Hsiao said that the first thing she wants to do after she is reinstated is to sweep her father’s tomb, tears welling up as she spoke.
“He always believed that I had done nothing wrong. He always believed in me and I want to tell him: ‘I did it,’” she said.
Hsiao thanked Ko for reinstating her, but said that he would not be able to fulfill the noble gesture if the education personnel involved in her dismissal remained unpunished.
“What I find hardest to swallow is that the school used my innocent students against me when it made them hold up a banner that read: ‘Unfit teacher, get out of here’ in front of the school gates,” she said, likening it to persecutions carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against its critics during the Cultural Revolution.
Hsiao said that both former Zhongshan Junior High School principal Tseng Mei-hui (曾美蕙) and student affairs director Chu Wu-wo (朱毋我), who she said played key roles in her sacking, have been promoted and are now the principals of Taipei Municipal Min Lun High School and Taipei Min Quan Junior High School respectively.
“Should people like them have such high office and be allowed to unabashedly lecture students? How in the world is this promoting transitional justice if such people go unpunished?” she said.
Humanistic Education Foundation chairman Shih Ying (史英) said that the school conspired against Hsiao when it said that she resisted counseling over groundless accusations that she had been negligent, paving the way for her dismissal.
Hsiao had requested that then-Research Center for Psychological and Educational Testing director Lin Shih-hua (林世華) serve in the group of counselors assembled by the school, but the school rejected her request and withdrew the possibility of holding counseling sessions after just two days, Shih said.
“I strongly suggest that these lawless scumbags be handed their just deserts, for they have shown all 23 million Taiwanese that they can do as they please,” he said.
Shih urged those involved in Hsiao’s dismissal to write her an open letter of apology, so that they might be forgiven.
Lawyer Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), who represented Hsiao on a pro bono basis, said that Hau should bear the greatest responsibility for the bullying of Hsiao, as he had abused his administrative powers.
He said that the Control Yuan — which took the corrective measures against the local education department that led to Hsiao’s reinstatement — should probe Hau’s involvement in the case.
Northern Taiwan Society vice chairman Lee Chuan-hsin (李川信) said that not only Hau, but all the officials involved in the case should take responsibility for their wrongdoing.
“The perpetrators are also educators. If they go unpunished, how can transitional justice be taught at schools?” Lee asked.
“Finally, Ko has done the right thing,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) said.
He criticized those who persecuted Hsiao, accusing the school of attempting to “erase students’ humanity” by turning them against their teacher.
“By taking advantage of students’ innocence, they were more vicious than the CCP,” he said.
Comparing the case to a poisonous arrow which had impaled the education system, Wang said that Hsiao’s reinstatement only served to remove the shaft, but to remove the arrow head the source of the injustice must be rooted out.
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