In a bid to improve children’s safety, the Taipei Department of Education yesterday said that it plans to finish installing perimeter alarm systems at all 139 elementary schools in the city by the end of this year.
The department began installing the alarms at the city’s schools after a man with a history of substance abuse attacked and killed a student at Wenhua Elementary School in the Beitou District (北投) last year.
The department said it has installed the alarms at 31 elementary schools and one junior high school so far.
Meanwhile, a campus patrol initiative, another policy formulated in the wake of the Beitou incident, is to be implemented at all elementary schools in Taipei in September.
Division chief Hsu Yu-sheng (許裕陞) said the department earlier this month instructed elementary schools to assemble patrols by soliciting help from community volunteers and parents to improve students’ safety after school.
The department has doled out NT$1.92 million (US$59,213) in subsidies to schools to purchase flashlights, whistles and vests to be used by patrol members, Hsu said.
The department is to launch a review of the initiative’s progress next month and work toward full implementation in the upcoming semester that starts in September after schools sign contracts with patrol members, Hsu said.
Hsu said that 70 primary schools and one junior high school have assembled patrols so far.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he instructed the city’s police to redouble patrols near kindergartens and elementary schools amid continuous media coverage of the murder of a four-year-old girl in the Neihu District (內湖) on Monday, which has sparked widespread panic among parents.
Ko also defended his suggestion to borough wardens that they hold more community events to enable residents to get to know one another better and obtain a better understanding of mentally unstable people among them.
Ko’s proposal was met with a mixed reception from borough wardens, with some raising questions about the effect communal activities would have on encouraging such individuals, whom Ko called “eccentrics,” to adopt a sociable lifestyle.
Citing his experience as a physician, Ko said that three out of every 1,000 people suffer from schizophrenia, and that the behavior of schizophrenics is likely influenced by how society treats them.
“If society is harmonious, their delusions will be of good things, but if other’s interactions with them are characterized by discord and a lack of mutual trust, they might have delusions that people want to hurt them, which could prompt pre-emptive actions,” Ko said.
People do not become estranged from society overnight, but rather through a gradual process, Ko said, adding that wardens should hold public events more frequently to help those with mental issues have a more normal life that would prevent their conditions from being exacerbated.
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