The Ministry of Education yesterday apologized to victims of sexual abuse at a special-needs school in southern Taiwan.
Vice Minister of Education Chen Yi-hsing (陳益興) expressed “deep sadness” over alleged sexual assault incidents at a national -special-needs education school, the name of which was not disclosed.
The apology came after the Humanistic Education Foundation criticized the ministry on Wednesday for failing to prevent sexual abuse at the school, where it was reported that nearly one in four students were involved.
Of 71 reported cases, 27 were sexual harassment and 22 were sexual assault, according to the ministry’s investigation. The remainder of the cases are still under investigation.
The ministry’s central region office has dispatched a supervisory panel and school inspectors to the school and they will remain there until the investigation is concluded, Chen said.
The ministry’s Gender Equity Education Committee will also draft a special report on the school over the next two weeks, and undertook to make their findings public within one month, Chen said.
Investigations and reviews of sexual abuse prevention work at schools will also be undertaken at all levels, with special-needs schools given priority, the official added.
Legislators urged the ministry to submit the report sooner. As a special panel had already conducted three investigations, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) asked why the results would take so long.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said that if the ministry needed two more weeks to look into the issue, the reporting system was clearly inefficient. The results of the investigation should be made available within a week, Kuan said.
In response to the foundation’s criticism, the principal said he took full responsibility, adding that he had stepped up measures to prevent such incidents after taking office in 2009.
Control Yuan member Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) said the Control Yuan began to notice the school when it probed a national compensation case related to sex abuse in March.
The exact number of cases still needs to be clarified since the foundation, the ministry and the school all reported different statistics, she added.
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