Prosecutors are investigating the death of a junior-high school student in Tainan who was allegedly bullied and killed by his classmates, who had reportedly fed him narcotics.
A preliminary examination has been carried out, but an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death would not be conducted until this week, prosecutors said.
The incident came to light on Thursday, after the mother of the victim, surnamed Lin (林), wrote on Facebook that her son passed away on Monday last week and that a blood test conducted by a hospital found “signs of poisoning from a toxic substance.”
Photo: Taipei Times
The mother also said that some students said her son had been bullied for a long time and that other students would allegedly take him to the restroom to force feed him illicit drugs.
In a separate Facebook post on the same day, the school principal said that Lin had been absent since Feb. 20, as the student was feeling unwell, and that he only later learned from Lin’s parents that Lin had died.
The parents have asked the school to investigate the alleged bullying, the school principal said, adding that two students implicated in the case had undergone several urine tests for illicit drugs, but the results came back negative.
A judicial investigation is being conducted, the school’s surveillance cameras have been requisitioned and the students are undergoing preliminary questioning, Tainan prosecutors said in a news release on Friday.
The Tainan Education Bureau and the Social Affairs Bureau said they have also assigned personnel to the school and the victim’s family to find out more details and to provide them with assistance.
Responding to media queries, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) on Friday said that it could be a case of student bullying, or outsiders getting into the school, using drugs to harm students.
“It is now undergoing a judicial investigation. The Executive Yuan has also requested the city’s Education Bureau and the school to conduct a thorough probe to determine what really happened and to present the facts of the case to the public,” he said.
“Members of the public are worried that narcotics have seeped into our schools. We want to stress that [possessing drugs] is a criminal offense, and we will certainly carry out a crackdown to fully clean it up,” Huang said, adding that there is zero tolerance for drugs on school campuses.
Additional reporting by Hung Jui-chin
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