A meeting between the six special municipalities is to be convened next week to discuss campus safety, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, in response to the death of a junior-high student in New Taipei City who was stabbed several times with a switchblade by a schoolmate on Monday.
A ninth-grade male student reportedly stabbed the victim in the neck and chest after a female classmate complained to him about the way the other student had spoken to her.
The student died after efforts to resuscitate him failed late on Tuesday, the New Taipei City Department of Education said.
Photo copied by Wu Jen-chieh, Taipei Times
The incident started during noon break on Monday, when the female student went to an adjacent classroom to chat with a friend, but ended up arguing with a male student who asked her to leave.
The girl reportedly left in anger and asked the male classmate to confront the other student.
After they returned to the neighboring classroom, the two male students started to argue which escalated into a physical altercation, the girl’s classmate pulled out a switchblade and stabbed the other student in the neck and chest several times, leaving him with no vital signs.
The injured student was rushed to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, where his heartbeat was initially restored following emergency treatment, but the surgery failed and the student died on Tuesday night, the department confirmed on Wednesday.
After hearing the case, a juvenile court on Tuesday ruled that the assailant should be placed in custody and the female student be released into the custody of a legal guardian.
According to local media reports, the stabber had already had multiple run-ins with the law for crimes including causing bodily harm, and had only recently been released from a juvenile detention center.
Writing on Facebook yesterday, Tsai expressed her condolences to the family of the victim.
A meeting is to be held next week among the nation’s six special municipalities to discuss ways to improve campus safety, including measures for reintroducing juvenile offenders and counseling, she added.
A national education action alliance in a statement on Wednesday said that the incident highlights a broader failure to provide effective guidance for at-risk students.
At-risk students often come from dysfunctional family backgrounds, have difficulty adapting to a school environment and in some cases, pose a threat to school safety, the alliance said, urging the government to provide alternative education programs specifically tailored to meet the needs of these students.
The Ministry of Education in a statement on Wednesday expressed regret over the incident and promised to review the nation’s alternative education system to address the educational needs of students that cannot be met in regular schools.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) yesterday also said that his ministry was planning to review the evaluation procedures and guidance services for students returning to school from the juvenile justice system.
Meanwhile, as rumors circulated online that the boy who committed the stabbing routinely brought a knife to school, a national teachers’ union on Wednesday said that ministry rules make even simple interventions, such as searching a student’s backpack, unfeasible.
According to the ministry’s guidelines, students’ private belongings can only be searched if there is proof or probable cause that they have committed a crime or possess prohibited items.
If a search is conducted, there must be at least two teachers, student representatives or parents present, and the entire process must be filmed, the guidelines state.
However, Humanistic Education Foundation director Feng Chiao-lan (馮喬蘭) said that even conducting universal bag searches at schools would not help prevent violence.
Conflicts on campus typically stem from internal factors or problems in a person’s behavior, under which circumstances any item can be used as a weapon, Feng said in a video provided to the media yesterday.
For that reason, prevention efforts should also focus on addressing students’ emotions and behavior, such as ensuring that there is sufficient funding for school counseling centers and other forms of support, Feng said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
‘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
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
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as