The Banciao preschool that was falsely accused of giving children sedatives is seeking state compensation for the losses it accumulated during the investigation, the New Taipei City Education Bureau said on Friday.
The school’s finances and reputation were damaged after it had to temporarily cease operations when the New Taipei City Government revoked its license on June 12 based on complaints from parents that their children had been given sedatives.
The city’s education bureau fined the preschool NT$150,000 which it said on Friday was issued in line with the Early Childhood Education and Care Act (幼兒教育及照顧法) and other related regulations.
It said that the preschool was fined for failing to report to the bureau that it had received complaints of inappropriate treatment of its students and it was planning to shut down operations by the end of this month.
The move for compensation came after the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday that there were insufficient grounds to pursue criminal charges against nine of the preschool’s staff members.
The office originally questioned the teachers about the allegations early last month and let them go on NT$20,000 to NT$50,000 bail, but that sparked recriminations against the teachers at the school and the New Taipei Government.
However, tests done with more precise instruments indicated that the students did not have any traces of barbiturates in their systems, and no evidence of wrongdoing was ever presented.
The city government on Thursday went on to revoke the administrative sanctions it had imposed on the preschool, and said it would contact the school’s principal to explain its decision and offer legal assistance if the preschool wished to seek redress.
In a statement it made through the education bureau on Friday, the school said it understood why it was given the NT$150,000 fine.
As for the losses it sustained, the school would be seeking legal counsel on petitioning the government for national compensation for the time it had to stop operations and cooperate with investigations, the bureau said.
The bureau said that once it receives the state compensation application from the preschool, it would do all it could to help the school with its claim.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its