The Taichung City Government failed to properly investigate or discipline a school principal accused of sexually assaulting a female student 25 years ago, the Humanistic Education Foundation and lawmakers told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
The Taichung Education Bureau received a complaint against a principal surnamed Huang (黃) in April and did nothing about it until Thursday, more than a week after the woman and the foundation went public with the accusation, the foundation said.
The delayed response enabled the accused to keep his pension without being sufficiently investigated, they said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
City officials are legally required to launch a probe into allegations of sexual misconduct by faculty within a month of receiving a complaint, said Chang Ping (張萍), director of the foundation’s national center for school safety.
The bureau repeatedly contravened the law and the victim’s rights in its handling of the affair, she added.
The victim knew that the statute of limitations on rape had expired so she asked that an administrative investigation be launched instead of a criminal probe, Chang said.
However, the bureau ignored her request and passed her case on to prosecutors, she said.
Other irregularities include allowing the accused to take a leave of absence instead of suspending him and failing to launch a larger inquiry into Huang’s conduct toward other students, she added.
“The municipality insisted on pressing charges through the judicial system instead of conducting a broad administrative investigation, because it wants to cover up its own negligence and protect the culprit,” Chang said.
The bureau’s failure to suspend Huang and call an evaluation within a month of receiving the complaint contravenes the Teachers’ Act (教師法), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said.
“The Taichung City Government has no excuse for abetting the culprit and playing deaf to a victim’s cry for help,” he said.
By handing the case to prosecutors, the city went against the wishes of the victim and the spirit of the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法), DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said.
According to law, a local government must assist victims without compelling them to bear witness in court, she said.
“The Taichung Legal Affairs Bureau either knowingly protected the perpetrator by pressing criminal charges ... or is totally ignorant of the law,” she said.
The statute of limitations on rape should be extended to better protect victims and hold abusers in positions of authority accountable, Fan added.
Wu Lin-hui (吳林輝), the Ministry of Education’s director of student affairs and special education, said that Taichung officials were amiss in failing to suspend Huang or launch an inquiry in a timely manner.
As the accused was a principal at the time the complaint was made, the delay allowed him to take a demotion to become a rank-and-file teacher, Wu said, adding that this means Huang would be investigated by the school rather than the bureau.
The ministry recommends that all inquiries into Huang’s conduct be merged into a single probe directed by a higher authority than the school, he said.
The ministry would move toward clarifying and amending the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), he added.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS