The Ministry of Education remains undecided on whether to bar baseball players allegedly involved in illegal betting from working as coaches at schools, regardless of whether they have been convicted.
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) told the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee that the ministry and the Sports Affairs Council had planned to issue a list of players allegedly involved in illegal betting, but the agencies were still discussing the criteria for the list.
“We will invite experts to determine a threshold to benefit both the persons involved and the development of professional baseball,” Cheng said.
Cheng’s remarks came in response to a story yesterday in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that quoted a section chief at the Department of Sports as saying that the ministry had issued a list before of professional baseball players who had allegedly been involved in illegal betting.
Lu Sheng-yuan (呂生源) was quoted as saying that the ministry had barred schools from hiring people on the list as teachers or baseball coaches for either school teams or youth clubs.
The story quoted lawyer Lin Chen-huang (林振煌) as saying the list violated the Constitution and articles 4 and 5 of the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) banning discrimination because some of the people on that list had not been convicted.
The ministry also drew fire from lawmakers.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) lashed out at the list, saying the ministry should not do the job of the courts.
“Even judges grant those who wish to repent a chance to redeem themselves. Ministry of Education [officials] are educators. How can they deprive a player of the right to coach?” Chang said.
Cheng said players who had not been found guilty should be allowed to work at schools and only those who had been convicted should be blacklisted.
Wang Chun-chuan (王俊權), director of the sports department, told reporters that the ministry would urge the sports council to remove anyone who had not been convicted from the list to protect their rights.
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