The Control Yuan on Tuesday censured the Taoyuan Education Department after a local private high school asked parents to sign letters of consent stating that they would not report to police that their children had been sexually harassed.
Control Yuan members Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) and Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) presented the results of their investigation into the incident at a news conference in Taipei.
They said that a teacher surnamed Chiang (江) was found guilty of sexually harassing several students during guidance counseling sessions he held at the school.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The school allowed Chiang to hold the sessions for several years, even though he has no background in counseling, they said.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison over the incidents and the school was ordered to compensate the victims NT$400,000, the members added.
Prior to his conviction, one victim told three teachers about the harassment, but none of them reported it, they said.
The victim also informed the teachers that 12 other students had told her about Chiang’s inappropriate behavior toward them, Yeh said.
However, the school only reported five incidents and conducted independent investigations into two of them, Yeh said.
It also urged the victims’ parents not to report the individual incidents to police, she added.
The school’s handling of the incidents breached the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, she said.
The school uses the 12-year compulsory curriculum, so it should be overseen by the Taoyuan City Government, she said.
Government oversight would have revealed that Chiang was not qualified to act as guidance counselor, she added.
After the initial reports that the school had urged parents to sign letters of consent, the education department did not ask the school to comprehensively investigate the incidents and handle them according to suggestions by its own gender equality committee, she said.
Chi cited the school as saying that it did not report the incidents because it believed that Chiang’s actions did not breach the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法).
Many schools and institutions do not investigate sexual misconduct accusations against staff members, she said.
The case also highlights that children’s right to freedom of expression is often neglected, as the school asked the victims’ parents to abstain from seeking justice on their children’s behalf, she added.
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