The presidential candidates of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday weighed in on the death of a ninth-grade student in New Taipei City on Wednesday, who was reportedly stabbed in the neck and chest several times during a quarrel with a fellow student on Monday.
“The Ministry of Education and other government agencies are providing assistance to the family of the student who was killed,” Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the DPP’s candidate, wrote on Facebook.
“They are also helping the students and teachers who witnessed the incident to mitigate any symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,” Lai added.
Photo: Huang Tzu-yang, Taipei Times
“The incident also has exposed the problem of school bullying, and we must try to prevent similar tragedies from happening again,” he said.
Lai said that if he is elected, he would thoroughly implement a three-tier counseling system that extends to elementary-school students by proposing an amendment to the Student Guidance and Counseling Act (學生輔導法).
The government would offer more counseling to high-risk families, train more counselors to assist school administrators and teachers to help students with problems, and establish a bridging mechanism between counseling and legal disciplinary services, he said.
“School bullying has become a global issue and the government should devote more resources to tackling it at the source,” he said. “My administration would ensure that students learn to respect and acknowledge differences in others.”
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s candidate, said that many people, including the family of the student who died, have called for a comprehensive review of the Juvenile Justice Act (少年事件處理法) following the incident, with a focus on the age of accountability, discipline and criminal liability of juveniles involved in major crimes.
“As school bullying is highly correlated with school violence, Japan promulgated the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying,” Hou wrote on Facebook. “Taiwan should learn from the principles of that law by reinforcing moral education among students, identifying early bullying behavior, monitoring bullying online, assisting people affected by bullying, and punishing and counseling bullies.”
“School administrators can work with local police departments if they think that a school bullying incident is a criminal matter,” he said. “Bullying can be mitigated through early intervention and offering care to high-risk people.”
The government should put more resources toward recruiting counselors, and ensuring the mental and physical health of young people, he said.
The social safety net should be bolstered to prevent bullying through well-coordinated efforts among public and private agencies, Hou said.
“Security at schools is not a local issue, it is a serious issue that the nation must confront together,” he said. “Organized crime groups have begun recruiting teenagers. The government needs to impose stricter sanctions on these groups and prevent the next generation from being destroyed by criminal elements.”
New Power Party Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭), whose daughter was decapitated by man in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) in 2016, said the most urgent task is that counselors at junior-high schools should care for the mental health of the family of the student who died, as well as his teachers and classmates.
“We are worried that the incident might encourage copycats,” Wang wrote on Facebook. “News media should refrain from giving overly detailed descriptions of the murder, and the public should avoid labeling specific groups.”
As a legislator, she has repeatedly warned about the counselor shortage on campuses being a loophole in the social safety net, Wang said.
“The issues of school bullying and safety have become more complicated,” she said. “Children are getting improper information from social media. This is a problem that the government, society, families and schools should resolve together.”
“Taiwan cannot afford to make changes only after multiple tragedies have occurred,” she said. “This would be too slow and too painful for families broken by tragedies.”
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