A mother in Miaoli County wept on Thursday as she told reporters how her nine-year-old son was punished by his teacher for picking his nose.
As a punishment, the teacher made each member of the class, which included the boy’s younger brother, pick their noses and wipe their mucus on his face.
The incident happened at an English school in Zaociao Township (造橋) in Miaoli County. The school is run by 38-year-old Chen Shu-ching (陳淑靖) and her husband, a UK citizen who also works at the school.
After being confronted by the boy's mother later that day, Chen admitted her mistake and apologized. She also applied to Miaoli County's department of education to close her school down, saying that she was unable to continue teaching.
Chen said she would return the tuition fees to all students, numbering about 20, and that she and her husband would leave Taiwan for the time being.
The boy's mother said her son is a third-grade elementary school student and that he has no learning difficulties despite having some issues with his mood and social skills. She said that last month she had arranged for him and his brother to go and study English at Chen's school.
She said that recently her son had been nervous before going to English class and the younger brother told her Chen had forced the entire class to wipe mucus on his face as a punishment.
While Chen admitted she was wrong, she said other children in the class had told her the boy had wiped mucus onto tables, walls and his classmates. Chen also said that in mid-March, he had tried to wipe his mucus on her.
Chen said she was angry the boy had not changed his ways after telling him many times to stop and said she jokingly told her students to pretend to pick their noses and wipe it on him as a punishment.
Chen said she was trying to get the boy to understand that he cannot do whatever he wants to other people. She said there were only nine students in the classroom at that time and only a few of them pretended to pick their noses, and that none of them actually wiped mucus onto the boy's face.
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