The New Taipei City Government yesterday said it would provide administrative and legal assistance to a Banciao District (板橋) preschool for losses associated with an alleged drugging scandal after prosecutors on Wednesday closed a probe into the school, citing a lack of evidence.
The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday said that with hair follicle tests of 36 children finding no traces of sedatives, there were insufficient grounds to pursue criminal charges against nine of the preschool’s staff members for allegedly drugging students.
There were also inconsistencies in the children’s testimonies before and after questioning, they said.
Photo: Huang Tsu-yang, Taipei Times
After cross-referencing surveillance footage from March 1 to April 15 with written consent forms and medical records, it was found that school staff had not improperly administered medication to students, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that they would also not be pursuing charges over allegations that the school had used corporal punishment on 13 children after interviews and surveillance footage provided insufficient evidence of such activity.
The New Taipei City Government yesterday said that it would revoke the administrative sanctions it imposed on the preschool and contact its principal to provide legal assistance if it wishes to seek redress.
The city government had revoked the preschool’s license on June 12 and fined it NT$150,000 on the basis of complaints from parents that their children had been given sedatives.
The city government could have been better in sharing information with the parents of the children and in an attempt at improvement, it is reviewing its measures, New Taipei City Education Department Commissioner Chang Ming-wen (張明文) told a news conference.
It had also underestimated the impact of the issue’s politicization and how information was being handled, causing distrust between the public and school staff, New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Liu Ho-jan (劉和然) said, adding that the city is looking at how it could have handled the issue better, and working to mend trust between parents and the school.
At a separate news conference, a teacher at the Banciao school surnamed Ho (何) said that while justice would clear their names, no one has given them justice.
New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) and Taiwan Children’s Rights Association director-general Wang Wei-chun (王薇君) rendered judgement before there was a trial, Ho said, adding that both should issue a public apology or she would take them to court.
Claire Wang said that she had never openly accused or implicated anyone, adding that she respected the results of the judicial investigation.
Claire Wang said she wanted to help parents find the truth and protect them from further harm, adding that she would shoulder all responsibility if her acts have caused distress for others.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS