Parents who since 2018 have accused a Kaohsiung elementary-school teacher of abusing their children, who have additional education needs, are demanding that the authorities immediately remove the teacher from her job.
The parents voiced their anger and frustration at the situation at a news conference organized by the Humanitarian Education Foundation on Wednesday.
It was the fifth news conference that has been held since 2019 to demand that action be taken against the teacher, surnamed Chen (陳), who has been accused of verbally bullying students, using inappropriate disciplinary methods and forcing students to cheat during exams to inflate their grades, said Chang Ping (張萍), head of the foundation’s southern region office.
Photo: CNA
The teacher has also refused to hold individualized education program meetings, which are widely considered crucial for children with special needs, Chang said.
The foundation and the parents said that despite filing complaints since 2018, school officials had failed to launch an investigation.
Following its own probe, the Kaohsiung Education Bureau did give the teacher a demerit in 2020 after she had returned from an extended period of leave, but parents were unhappy with that course of action and many transferred their children to other schools.
Chang accused the school and the education bureau of failing to address the issue, questioning why they had allowed Chen to take a semester off at a time when numerous complaints had been filed against her.
Chen has tried to transfer to schools in rural areas of Kaohsiung and Hualien, but had been prevented from doing so after the foundation called news conferences to detail the accusations, Chang said.
The mother of one of the students, surnamed Wen (溫), said that her child was taught by Chen since third grade and had become more emotionally unstable ever since.
In addition, Wen accused the teacher of forcing students to cheat in their exams.
“This whole class of students with additional needs were suddenly getting amazingly high scores on their math exam and even their other teachers found the situation strange,” she said.
Another mother, surnamed Lai (賴), accused Chen of not even helping students in more extreme situations, citing the example of a student who was covered in feces in a bathroom and another who fell from their seat onto the floor.
Another parent, surnamed Chung (鍾), said that Chen tried to promote what she called her “smart juice” by telling parents: “Don’t bother taking them to rehabilitation, just give them the juice.”
Responding to the accusations, the education bureau said in a statement that complaints received about Chen in the middle of last month were the first received in two years and that it had ordered the elementary school to immediately address the complaints.
The bureau said that it was not trying to protect the teacher and that it would strictly monitor what was happening at the school to ensure the rights of students were protected.
The school’s principal told the Central News Agency that when the teacher returned to work in 2020, some parents had complained, but school officials had reminded the teacher of the importance of solving the issues.
The principal said that the school would launch an investigation as soon as it received the necessary paperwork from the education bureau.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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