Taichung imposes fine, 4-year ban on abusive preschool teacher

Taipei, April 30 (CNA) The Taichung Bureau of Education on Tuesday said it has fined and imposed a four-year teaching ban on a preschool teacher who threatened a child with scissors, while also ordering the school that employed her to halt new enrollments for one year.

In a press release, the bureau said it received a tip-off earlier this month alleging abuse by a teacher at a private preschool in Dali District, and contracted an outside investigator on April 22 to examine the claims.

According to the investigator's report, the teacher had forcibly held down a special needs child, threatened a child with a pair of scissors, and made children run laps around a track as a punishment, the bureau said.

After holding a meeting on the situation Tuesday, the bureau said it had fined the unnamed female teacher NT$400,000 (US$12,263) and banned her from working at educational institutions for a period of four years.

The ban will be national in scope, as the teacher's personal information will be uploaded into a database kept by the K-12 Education Administration, it said.

The preschool, meanwhile, was ordered to halt new student enrollments for one year, in light of the poor oversight it exercised over the teacher, which resulted in the victimization of six children, the statement said.

Separately, the bureau fined the school NT$300,000 for using surveillance cameras that deleted footage automatically at set intervals, in violation of the Early Childhood Education and Care Act.

The owner and manager of the school was also fined NT$150,000 for failing to intervene after other staff members at the school and some students' parents expressed concerns about the teacher's behavior, the bureau said.