Poor supervision of a school that had improper dress codes and implemented corporal punishment prompted a Control Yuan censure yesterday of the Yunlin County Department of Education.
Civic groups in February last year reported that Yuan Ming Junior High School illegally imposed corporal punishment and restrictions on hairstyles, Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) told a news conference in Taipei.
An investigation conducted by Yeh and Control Yuan member Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘) found that the issues were first reported to the Ministry of Education’s K-12 Education Administration in May 2020, but the Yunlin department failed to launch an investigation, she said.
Photo: CNA
The department did not order the school to revise its regulations until the ministry introduced new dress code policies on Aug. 3, 2020, Yeh said.
The department conducted an on-site inspection and found that the school required short hair for male students, contravening Article 21 of the Observations on the Notice Governing Educators’ Teaching and Punishing of Students as Defined by Schools (學校訂定教師輔導與管教學生辦法注意事項), she said.
The school also had regulations regarding underwear, socks and shoes, while the process for electing members of its dress code committee contravened the Principles for Making Regulations on Students’ Clothing and Appearance in Junior High Schools (國民中學訂定學生服裝儀容規定之原則), Yeh said.
The school advised female students to wear light-colored underwear, which might be against the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), she said.
The department asked 60 students at the school about corporal punishment, with four saying they had received it “almost every day” and nine saying it happened to them “almost every week,” she said.
The punishments they described constituted physical or mental abuse according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, she added.
The school convened a meeting regarding the issues, but determined that they were not serious or were reasonable teaching methods, Yeh said.
The meeting concluded that the six teachers involved did not act in breach of the Teachers’ Act (教師法), she added.
Expressing doubts regarding the meeting’s conclusions, the K-12 agency ordered a follow-up meeting, which gave four of the six teachers a warning, Yeh said.
The Yunlin department was censored for its poor supervision of the school and not properly investigating the issues, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS