The Kaohsiung District Court has sentenced a daycare center teacher to 45 days in prison for charges linked to brandishing a BB gun at a boy with developmental issues under his care, it said in a recent verdict.
The sentence can be commuted to a fine, and the ruling can still be appealed.
In 2022, a teacher surnamed Tu (杜) feigned to throw a key and water pot at the boy, surnamed Chen (陳), for allegedly causing a clamor by kicking and punching the classroom blackboard, the verdict said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Tu was also accused of saying he would rough up the child in an attempt to make him more compliant, it said.
Chen, who was eight years old at the time, had a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it said.
Tu in March of the following year shot a BB gun at a door close to Chen, because Chen allegedly refused to do his homework before kicking a fellow student’s desk and threatening to throw a pencil box at that classmate, it said.
The child’s mother pressed charges against Tu after learning of the incidents, saying that the teacher had intimidated and physically assaulted her child with blows to the head, arm and thigh, the verdict said.
The prosecutor assigned to the case dropped the assault charges, as police did not find visible injuries on the boy and his mother did not provide medical documentation of a physical attack, it said.
Tu denied intimidating the boy and said that he disciplined the boy after getting reports from students that Chen bullied girls in the class.
The defendant additionally told the court that he had informed Chen’s grandmother of his behavioral issues at the cram school but did not receive a positive response, the verdict said.
Chen’s temper tantrums scared other children, and he would not stop when ordered, Tu was cited as saying.
The defendant contravened provisions of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), which bans the intimidation of children, the verdict said.
Tu acted improperly regardless of his purportedly good intentions to educate Chen, an eight-year-old child who did not know right from wrong, it said, adding that Tu might have worsened the boy’s behavioral issues by setting a bad example.
Violent disciplinary methods inadvertently teach children that might makes right, it said.
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