Schools would be allowed to conduct inspections of “students of interest” as soon as next month, while extra measures are under way, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said yesterday.
The measures are to be enacted in light of a stabbing at a New Taipei City junior high school on Monday last week, which left a student dead.
The Ministry of Education yesterday morning convened a meeting with local government, school, teacher and parent representatives to discuss measures to improve campus safety.
Photo courtesy of Tamsui Vocational High School via CNA
During the meeting, they agreed to empower schools’ student affairs departments to conduct routine inspections to guarantee student privacy, Pan said.
He said the ministry was considering two main proposals concerning bag searches to improve campus safety.
The first involves making a distinction between routine and emergency searches, with the latter allowing for immediate searches to be conducted in cases where a student is reported to be carrying a dangerous object, Pan said.
The other proposal would set a separate standard for searching the belongings of students of interest, he said.
“Students of interest” are defined as those who have a juvenile criminal record, are on trial, have been placed under custody by a juvenile court, have been arrested for errant behavior or have a record of substance abuse, the ministry said.
The ministry said that students would be informed of their rights and the search would be recorded.
Any contraband would be temporarily confiscated by the department, with searches being recorded on camera, the ministry said, adding that any legal wrongdoing would be reported to local police.
The ministry is still debating whether videos would have a sunset clause or should be archived, it said, adding that it is still discussing the type of staff to run such inspections, the number of personnel and whether routine inspections in classes should be allowed.
The ministry is still mulling whether students who have been in custody or on probation before would be considered “students of interest.”
The ministry expects to complete its goal of increasing schools’ student affairs department personnel and security staff for junior high schools by the end of next year and achieve its goals to increase personnel at elementary schools by the end of 2026, Pan said.
National Federation of Teachers’ Unions chairman Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said that the initial reaction of the ministry and the New Taipei City Government was to criticize teachers, showing a lack of confidence in educators.
Teachers face difficulties brought about by the system, and limiting their ability to discipline students by amending the Teacher’s Act (教師法) over the acts of a few did not help, Hou said.
Hou said that the ministry should establish a task force to handle incidents of violence by students.
Additional reporting by CNA
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