The New Taipei City Government has been reprimanded for mishandling a case of alleged child abuse at a preschool in Banciao District (板橋) last year, the Control Yuan said on Thursday.
The city government failed to properly investigate reports to the police last year by several parents about suspected drugging of their children at a private preschool in Banciao, the Control Yuan said, citing the findings of its probe.
The city government’s response, even amid the public furor that erupted after the allegations were made in May last year, was inadequate and undermined parents’ confidence in the local government, Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The Control Yuan’s findings were released on Thursday, following a review of government agencies’ role in the case.
The decision to reprimand the city government was approved on Aug. 15 by the Control Yuan’s Committee on Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Although the city government inspected the preschool on May 15 last year, the city’s Education Department only carried out general checks and failed to follow standard procedures, such as obtraining surveillance camera footage and conducting interviews with parents, Yeh said.
The report for the May 15 inspection listed only four surveillance cameras at the preschool, but the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office seized 13 during its search of the premises on May 18, the Control Yuan said.
Therefore, crucial evidence was missing in the city government’s investigation into allegations that children were being given sedatives at the preschool, it said, adding that the findings lacked credibility when they were released two months later.
After failing to obtain crucial evidence in the case, the city’s Education Department and prosecutors’ office blamed each other, the Control Yuan said.
As part of the Control Yuan’s decision in the case, it has asked the city government and the Ministry of Justice to review and improve their operations to prevent a recurrence of such a case.
The Control Yuan launched an investigation into the case on July 6 last year after it received complaints from parents about the city government’s handling of the matter.
A few days later, on July 12, New Taipei City prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges against the preschool principal or the eight other staff members.
Yeh said that during the investigation, the city government only communicated with the parents through the preschool, even when they issued a notification that the children would be tested for sedatives.
The city government also mishandled the release of the test results and the arrangements to transfer the children to other preschools, he said.
The city government released the results of the drug tests on June 8 last year, before its investigation was completed and without consulting the parents, with total disregard for the opinions of experts who had said that the minute traces of the barbiturates found in the tests were inconclusive, Yeh said.
The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in September last year was instructed to reopen its investigation into the case, he said, adding that he hoped the prosecutors would find the facts with the help of the surveillance camera footage they obtained.
Meanwhile, the Control Yuan said that while it is not difficult to recover the footage that was tampered with, it has not yet been established whether the children were abused.
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