SCHOOL SCANDAL: The DPP demanded that the city expand investigations, hold officials accountable for failures in oversight and reform background checks
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By Hollie Younger / Staff writer, with CNA
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Taichung city councilors yesterday criticized the city’s Education Bureau for failing to ascertain the number of victims and issue disciplinary action over sexual assault cases at a local elementary school, but Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) argued that some of the victims were duplicates, and that there was no cover-up or lapse in oversight.
Victims continue to emerge following a third wave of indictments against a school baseball coach, who was previously convicted of 90 sexual offenses against 32 minors from 2019 to 2024.
He was indicted again on Wednesday last week by the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of rape and forced indecency, as well as producing and possessing sexually explicit content involving minors, after prosecutors identified 19 more victims, all younger than 14.
Democratic Progressive Party Taichung City Councilors hold placards at a news conference at their caucus office in the city yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The city government intervened quickly after the case was reported, Lu said, adding that the school was disciplined and its principal has stepped down.
The Taichung Legal Affairs Bureau is also helping victims apply for compensation, with some cases already being successful, she said.
The Taichung Education Bureau said 42 victims were identified in the first and second wave of indictments, with another 11 added in the third wave, although it is not yet known if any are duplicates from earlier indictments.
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus in the Taichung City Council yesterday demanded that the city government proactively expand investigations, hold officials accountable for failures in oversight and reform background checks in schools.
The coach with a prior record of child sexual assault continued working in schools for six years, reflecting a systemic failure within the education administration, Taichung City Councilor Chou Yung-hong (周永鴻) said, adding that disciplinary action for the school alone is not enough.
The Taichung District Court in July last year sentenced the coach, surnamed Sung (松), to prison terms ranging from three years, six months to eight years, six months, with the combined sentence undetermined.
The verdict was upheld by the Taichung High Court following an appeal.
Sung had a prior record and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2004 for molesting three children, but the charges were suspended as he reached settlements with the victims, so he served no time and was not placed on the list of sexual offenders by the Ministry of Education.
He was hired by the elementary school in 2018.
