National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) said today it would cooperate with an investigation of a blood donation scandal involving female student athletes and promised that it would not delete or conceal relevant information.
Soccer coach Chou Tai-ying (周台英) has been accused by former members of the school’s women’s soccer team and students at NTNU of coercing them into participating in a blood sampling research study by threatening to fail them if they failed to comply.
The project was subsidized by the National Science and Technology Council (NTSC) across several years with a yearly budget of about NT$9 million (US$305,981).
Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Normal University
The Ministry of Education has already fined the university NT$1.1 million (US$33,687), as well as project head Chen Chung-ching (陳忠慶) and Chou NT$500,000 each over violations of the Human Subjects Research Act (人體研究法).
In a written statement today, NTNU officials confirmed they would fully cooperate with prosecutors and investigators. NTNU also expressed regret over the harm and public concern caused by the incident, offered an apology and promised to hold an internal review and cooperate with follow-up investigations and counseling.
The school also promised to establish a contact point to protect the rights of students and members of the women’s soccer team, accept their complaints and provide counseling.
On Wednesday, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office announced it had opened a case looking into the matter related to coercion and other violations, followed by a visit by investigators to the school yesterday to obtain documents.
It assigned a prosecutor from a special team for livelihood crimes to lead the investigation and directed the Investigation Bureau’s Taipei division to handle the case.
Prosecutors demand that the school preserve all documents, electronic records, research samples or be held legally accountable, it said yesterday.
Prosecutors said that the investigation would move quickly and protect the rights of the university’s student athletes.
When investigators went to the school yesterday, Chen and school administrative staff accompanied them throughout the process, having preserved all relevant documents and samples in accordance with regulations and with no intention of concealing anything, the statement said.
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