A New Taipei City school has refused to detail its response to an alleged sexual assault case involving a teacher inappropriately touching eight children, despite complaints from parents, Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) said yesterday.
Ying said a parent told her earlier this month that a social studies teacher surnamed Hsu (許) at Youmu Elementary School in Sanxia District (三峽) had on several occasions asked female students to organize books in the library, during which time he slid his hand into their underwear.
The parent informed the school on June 7, she said, adding that a total of eight parents have told her that their children were sexually assaulted by Hsu.
As Hsu has taught at the school for many years, there might be more victims, Ying said.
The Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) stipulates that after receiving information regarding sexual assault, teachers and staff must inform school authorities and the local social welfare department or a gender equity education committee, which would investigate, she said.
However, the school only told the parent that Hsu has left the school and refused to provide more information, Ying said, adding that it also failed to inform them that they could report the case to the police.
The school owes parents a better explanation, she said.
School director Lin Ming-shan (林明杉) said the school offered the parent an explanation as soon as information was available, adding that a team has been formed to investigate the allegations.
The school on June 7 reported the case and the steps it would to take, the New Taipei City Department of Education said, adding that the teacher was suspended as soon as the school received the report.
The school has been urged to handle the case in line with the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法), it said
“From 2014 to last year, there were at least 31 cases of sexual harassment or assault by teachers, but only two were reported to the police,” she said. “If those teachers are hired by schools in other cities or counties, more students could be harmed.”
Additional reporting by CNA
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,