The results of hair follicle drug tests on 36 students at a preschool in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) detected no traces of barbiturates or any other sedatives, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The preschoolers were tested for a total of 47 types of drugs, including benzodiazepines and barbiturates, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Some children were found to have traces of acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and methyl ephedrine. However, these are all common ingredients in cold medicines, the office said.
The tests used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, which in addition to being highly accurate, do not return “false” or “weak” positive results, and can detect drugs ingested up to three months prior to testing, prosecutors said.
They added that the probe is still ongoing, and investigations into the nine members of the Banciao preschool staff accused of drugging children under their care would continue.
Fears over the misuse of barbiturates, such as phenobarbital, were sparked when the parents of three students at the Banciao preschool reported to police in May that their children might have been given unknown drugs by their teachers.
Prosecutors searched the school, as well as the homes of the school’s principal and employees, and took blood samples from 28 students. Trace amounts of phenobarbital were detected in the blood tests of eight students.
The parents of 36 students from the preschool, including the eight, then filed police reports and the hair samples of their children were sent to the Investigation Bureau by prosecutors between May 26 and June 19, with the results announced on Thursday.
Hair follicle drug tests involve complex procedures and normally take at least three months, but the Investigation Bureau completed the tests in the shortest possible time to provide the parents with the results as soon as it could, the prosecutors said.
The issue has grown into a political storm ensnaring New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for January’s presidential election.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has accused Hou’s administration of dragging its feet in holding the Banciao preschool to account.
Hou and the KMT have dismissed the DPP’s charges, accusing it of spreading rumors about the case to score political points.
Following the announcement of the test results, Hsieh Cheng-ta (謝政達), deputy head of Hou’s campaign office, called on Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the DPP’s presidential candidate, and his spokeswoman, Tai Wei-shan (戴瑋姍), to apologize to all the parents in Taiwan and take responsibility for “creating a rift in society” and “destroying trust” between parents and teachers over the past month.
The DPP said it respects the prosecutors’ investigation and findings, but added that investigations are still ongoing and the case has not yet been closed.
It also urged the New Taipei City Government to complete its own administrative investigation and announce the results as soon as possible to protect the health and safety of the children involved.
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