An investigation by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) found that a coach on the women’s soccer team forced players to donate blood or risk losing academic credits, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
The ministry recommended a two-year dismissal for the coach and said it would monitor NTNU’s handling of the situation.
In November last year, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) said that a coach on the NTNU women’s soccer team was forcing players to cooperate with a sports science research project.
Photo: screen grab from the Internet
The research project was led by the National Science and Technology Council.
Citing a complaint from a player, Chen at the time said that athletes were forced to give blood three times a day for 14 days, with the coach threatening to withhold graduation credits if they refused to cooperate.
Initially, blood samples were taken by those with no medical training, Chen said, adding that some athletes were required to withdraw from training for up to six months.
In a news statement issued on Sunday evening, NTNU said that the school had completed its investigation.
The university removed the coach from administrative and coaching positions in December last year, it said, adding that the coach would no longer be allowed to lead teams.
Department staff provided the athletes with a signed letter of apology from the coach in May, it added.
NTNU filed a report on Nov. 29 last year and launched an investigation in accordance with its bullying prevention guidelines, the ministry said in a written statement yesterday.
The university also offered students consultation and counseling resources, the ministry added.
Due to the case’s complexity, the investigation was extended by one month, it said.
The ministry said that the NTNU Campus Anti-bullying Committee concluded that the coach had engaged in bullying behavior toward the students, adding that further action would be determined by the university’s teacher evaluation committee.
The ministry said that it would continue to monitor the school’s review and actions, adding that it would request a re-examination and hold officials responsible if the school were to fail to abide by the Teachers’ Act (教師法).
An ethics committee in May found that the research project contravened the Human Subjects Research Act (人體研究法), with the university and personnel failing to provide proper oversight.
If serious contraventions of the act are confirmed, the project’s researchers and NTNU could face administrative penalties.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS