The Ministry of Education today said it is to hand over a sexual inequity case at National Taiwan University (NTU) to the Gender Equity Education Committee for a formal investigation, after lawmakers earlier issued a statement condemning its handling of complaints against Deputy Minister of Education Benson Yeh (葉丙成).
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators from the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee in a joint statement this morning condemned the ministry’s response to the case as deeply unprofessional and lacking oversight, demanding an external investigation by the equity committee.
Yeh last month on Facebook allegedly disclosed details of the case, gave personal commentary and risked exposing the identity of the student involved.
Photo: Taipei Times
The committee would conduct an impartial investigation using an independent panel of experts, the ministry said.
Yeh, also a professor at NTU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, made a post to Facebook on April 21 containing screenshots of WeChat messages that allegedly disclosed sensitive information.
He has since edited the post and the screenshots have been removed or censored, but the affected student said in the comments: “Surely you know that campus safety reports must be kept confidential?”
Yeh has since commented on the post, which has amassed 12,000 reactions and 700 comments, to apologize.
“In the future, I will make a clearer distinction between my role as professor and deputy minister [of education],” he said.
In a separate case last year, the Control Yuan found that NTU had failed to protect students after a sexual harassment incident was exposed, which led to safety concerns for the student involved, today’s statement said.
Following the investigation, the ministry and NTU were issued corrective actions, it said.
However, the ministry has failed to implement these corrections or supervise NTU in improving its systems and procedures, leaving students in an “unsafe learning environment,” it said.
In response to the inequity case, DPP members of the Education and Culture Committee twice sent formal letters to the ministry to call for an investigation, on April 25 and May 9, it said.
The ministry has since failed to recognize the seriousness of the incident or release details of the personnel involved, it added.
According to Article 41 of the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), the ministry is required to clearly explain its investigation process and disclose whether conflict-of-interest protocols were followed, it said.
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