In a bid to eradicate drugs and violence from school and college campuses, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday launched a campaign to fight the two major causes of youth crime and build healthier campuses.
With the assistance of the MOI and DOH, the education ministry announced several strategies to fight campus violence and drug abuse, including the establishment of hotlines at the National Police Agency to report campus crimes, expanding the "anti-drug promotional lecture" tour and conducting urine screening on campus.
"While fighting campus violence and drug abuse is a joint effort by the three governmental units, the heaviest responsibility lies with the education ministry," said Education Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (
"We [the education ministry] stand in the front line to provide preventive measures to educate our kids about the danger of drugs and violence. If we can prevent them from going astray, remedial measures by the MOI and DOH will be unnecessary," Tu said at a press conference to announce the campaign.
Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
"Youth crime stems mostly from problematic family relationships. With more and more families losing the function of offering a support system for their children, schools are playing an important role to safeguard our children from getting hurt by drugs and violence," Su said.
"The National Police Agency has been working with the education ministry to eradicate illegal operations around campuses and set up crime-reporting systems with schools. We [the MOI] will continue offering backup forces to keep the youth away from drugs and campus violence," he said.
According to figures released by the education ministry, a total of 133 students violated the Statute for Narcotics Hazard Control (
Pan Hwai-tzong (潘懷宗), one of the lecturers of the "anti-drug promotional lecture" tour, which started visiting elementary and junior-high school campuses in 1997, said that, besides educating the youth about the danger of drugs, it is equally important to inform those who are already addicted to drugs about how to seek help.
"More and more young people use drugs nowadays, and the average age of drug addition is dropping to 12 or 13 years old. Usually they first take drugs out of innocence or after being seduced by their peers," said Pan, a pharmacology professor at the National Yang-Ming University.
"We focus on informing students about the harm drugs cause to people, and helping them to recognize different kinds of drugs. But I think it is crucial to encourage them to seek help," he said.
Pan said that addicts who seek help at rehabilitation centers will not run the risk of a criminal record, while selling drugs may lead to life in jail or even the death penalty.
"So we need to tell those young drug addicts not to be afraid of seeking assistance from their family, schools or rehabilitation centers, to let them know that they can choose to rebuild their lives before it's too late," Pan said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by