Eight preschool children at a private preschool in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) have tested positive for barbiturates and benzodiazepines. Prosecutors in the past few days have questioned teachers at the school, who parents accused of drugging their children. The incident sparked a massive public outcry, not only toward the school, but also toward the New Taipei City Government, with many saying its response to the incident was too slow.
The case emerged on May 14 after the parents of three children told police that a teacher at the preschool had drugged their children and imposed corporal punishment on them. However, the city’s education department said it received the report the next day and immediately launched an investigation. Prosecutors searched the preschool on May 18 and detained and questioned the accused teacher. She was released on bail and suspended from work. On May 22, the preschool offered drug tests for children at a medical center. Instead, a parent took his child to three hospitals for blood and urine tests between May 22 and May 29, with results coming back positive for barbiturates on June 1. More parents contacted the police and took their children to get tested.
Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and a parent held a news conference on June 2, in which the parent said he only got a phone call from the education department about the incident. A New Power Party lawmaker and other parents held another news conference on Monday where only one parent said she received a call from the department. Moreover, a DPP lawmaker on Wednesday said a parent said they reported the case to the city government’s 1999 Citizen Hotline and to the mayor’s public contact e-mail in late April, but received no response, so they reported it to the police.
After the news conferences drew public attention, the New Taipei City Department of Health on Monday conducted drug tests at the preschool. Prosecutors conducted an expanded search on Thursday at the homes of the preschool principal and seven teachers, also detaining them for questioning. The education department had planned a meeting with the parents of 67 children at the preschool on Thursday, but suddenly changed it to one-on-one counseling sessions. It held a second closed-door meeting on Friday with New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), but many parents still blamed the city government, demanding that it step in and help them.
As of yesterday, over a dozen parents had filed charges. Eight out of 28 children who underwent drug tests tested positive for barbiturates or benzodiazepines, both controlled substances available only through medical prescription. Both barbiturates and benzodiazepines, which depress the central nervous system, lower the heart rate and induce sedation, are used to treat sleep disorders and anxiety. However, as they are highly addictive, they are used sparingly only for specific, medically supervised cases. Long-term use can cause complications. Withdrawal symptoms include agitation and anxiety.
Hou apologized several times since Thursday, but the city government denied it received a report in April. It said it responded immediately in the middle of last month, evoking the death of a two-year-old boy nicknamed En En (恩恩), who died of complications from COVID-19 last year. The emergency services in New Taipei City were blamed for responding too slowly.
While prosecutors are investigating the preschool case, the city government should promptly offer remediations -— health consultations, school transfers and legal services to help the children and parents. It should also ascertain if drugging has occurred in other preschools or nursing homes, and improve its reporting and investigation procedures, as in the instance of child abuse cases by licensed caregivers or preschools that are also reported each year. Even one case is too many.
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