Police were notified on Saturday after a high-school student fell seriously ill after a teacher allegedly subjected him to repeated punishments in the form of physical exercises.
The first-year culinary-arts student, surnamed Liu (劉), at Yung-Ping Vocational High School in Taoyuan was on Thursday diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis — the breakdown of striated muscle tissue and the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream — after being rushed to hospital.
Liu was in intensive care, where he was reportedly recovering.
His parents on Saturday filed a report with police, naming Liu’s teacher, surnamed Huang (黃).
A family member said Liu has a relatively slight build and so was quickly worn out when Huang had him do a large number of push-ups for failing to register properly on the first day of classes on Monday last week.
The following day, Huang had the entire class peel red onions and students were required to do a squat jump or a crunch for every gram they fell short of a 1.2kg quota, the family member said.
Liu, who only peeled 66g, was one of eight students required to do the exercises, his family said, adding that the student was doing the exercises for half a day, but was unable to finish, so Huang demanded that he peel an additional 1.5kg of onions and barred him from taking days off.
The family said that on Thursday Liu complained of muscle pain, but did not dare take a day off school for fear of further reprimand from his teacher.
Liu went to school, but the family asked that Huang not make him perform any physical exercises, family members said.
Huang ignored the request, telling Liu to run laps of the sports field while carrying bottles of water on serving platters, the family said, adding that he was given additional laps whenever he dropped a bottle.
At home that evening Liu passed brown-colored urine and was incoherent, his parents said, adding that they immediately rushed him to the emergency room of Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
School principal Huang Yao-lu (黃耀祿) said that the teacher started at the school two years ago after working in the private sector.
He said the teacher’s methods are strict, but effective, citing students who have gone on to win international awards for their cooking.
He added that the teacher will finish his current contract with the school at the end of this month.
“Teacher Huang has expressed his regret and apologies and has promised to take full responsibility, including covering medical expenses,” the principal said.
The school said it is investigating the incident and would decide after its investigations whether to retain the teacher.
Ministry of Education K-12 Education Administration official Yang Kuo-lung (楊國隆) said the ministry will also be conducting its own investigations at the school.
Humanist Education Foundation executive director Joanna Feng (馮喬蘭) said physical punishment in schools has long been prohibited.
“The ministry should also look into the responsibility of the school’s administration in regard to the use of corporal punishment there and make its report public,” she added.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS