The principal of a private preschool in New Taipei City and five of its teachers have been released on bail after being questioned over allegations that some of the school’s children were drugged with sedatives.
Another teacher was released without having to post bail and one other teacher was still being questioned as of press time last night, New Taipei City prosecutors said.
The homes of all eight of the preschool’s employees were raided on Thursday morning by police and prosecutors, with five, including the principal, taken to Haishan Precinct to give statements before being questioned by prosecutors.
Photo: Chen Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
A second group of three teachers was questioned yesterday.
Prosecutors suspect that the people questioned engaged in actions that breached bodily harm provisions in the Criminal Code.
They did not say why they released the six people on bail, but the suspected offenses would not constitute felonies, usually one of the thresholds for detaining a suspect.
The principal was released on NT$50,000 bail, while the five teachers were released on bail of between NT$20,000 and NT$30,000.
The private preschool in Banciao District (板橋) has been accused by parents of 17 students of drugging the children, leading to the raids on Thursday.
Allegations against the school began to surface when the parents of three children on May 14 reported to police that a teacher had given their children unknown drugs and used improper physical methods to discipline them.
The parents said that they had noticed behavioral changes in their children, including extreme irritability and incidents of self-harm, from February to April.
In response, prosecutors searched the school on May 18 and detained the accused teacher, surnamed Chao (趙), for questioning, but later released her on bail of NT$20,000.
At about the same time, the New Taipei City Education Bureau demanded that the school suspend Chao from her duties.
The parents of 28 children had them take blood and urine tests, and the test results of eight showed the presence of barbiturates, a class of drug used to help people sleep, relieve anxiety and prevent seizures, prosecutors said.
The preschool is a franchise of Kid Castle Educational Institute, an English-language school, a statement from the institute said on Thursday.
The law stipulates that media should not disclose information, including the name of a school, if it would enable children being abused to be identified.
A group of students on Thursday evening protested against New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) at National Chengchi University where he was attending a forum hosted by students in his capacity as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate.
Hou apologized for not having provided sufficient protection for the children and said the city government would severely punish those responsible.
The Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus yesterday criticized the New Taipei City Government for waiting 22 days after the first complaints before organizing an inspection of the school.
Separately, Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), who heads the National Policy Foundation, a KMT think tank, yesterday said that “frankly, Mayor Hou’s apology could have come sooner.”
She accused the New Taipei City Education Bureau of dragging its feet on the issue, adding that its failure to communicate on the incident for nearly a month contributed to public anger.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan and Chen Cheng-yu
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