The Taichung City Government has said that it is investigating an alleged poisoning of an elementary-school student by their classmates using sugar water laced with devil’s ivy.
The Taichung Education Bureau confirmed on Saturday that it received a report on May 11 that a student experienced dizziness, nausea and stomach pain after ingesting sugar water laced with the common houseplant.
China Medical University Hospital Department of Toxicology director Hung Tung-jung (洪東榮), who treated the student, said he suspected prolonged exposure to toxins from the plant, which is also known as golden pathos.
Photo: Taipei Times file
In a post on the online forum Dcard that has since been deleted, a user accused “Student A” of poisoning “Student R” with the intent to kill over an argument.
Although a teacher attempted to mediate, Student A found three classmates to help them poison Student R late last month, the post said.
Through online research they decided on either devil’s ivy, Asian taro or oleander, and chose one at random, it said.
The post then said that the four students made a juice from the plant mixed with sugar and added it to Student R’s water bottle.
Initially suspecting food poisoning, the teacher held a meeting with Student R’s parents and the school before finding a bottle with the mixture under Student A’s desk the next day, the post said.
Both sets of parents on May 11 informed the police, who confirmed receiving the report, but forwarded the case to the bureau, as minors younger than 12 are not criminally liable.
The bureau said that the school has spoken with the students involved, while the parents have filed numerous bullying and gender discrimination complaints with the school.
Asian taro and devil’s ivy are in the Araceae family of plants, which contain calcium oxalate crystals and saponins, Taichung Veterans General Hospital Department of Toxicology doctor Mao Yen-chiao (毛彥喬) said.
The crystals can cause redness and mild pain if touched, and can cause mouth sores, throat pain, abdominal pain and diarrhea if ingested, Mao said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods