
Establishing a Complaint Mechanism for a Child-Friendly Campus is Imperative
Recently, a high school student in central Taiwan committed suicide due to suspected inappropriate treatment from a teacher, which is tragic and heartbreaking. What is especially regrettable is that according to news reports, even though the student experienced various forms of mistreatment, not one person during that time activated a complaint mechanism, resulting in a lack of counseling resources to intervene and provide timely assistance for such a severe conflict between the teacher and student.
Current inappropriate behaviors of educators towards students can generally be categorized into two types, bullying or corporal punishment/improper discipline. According to the Ministry of Education's 2021 School Safety Incident Report Statistics, throughout the year, there were 259 reports of teachers bullying students and approximately 200 reports of teachers using corporal punishment. Other than the Ministry of Education, there is also The Control Yuan’s Children’s Complaint Mailbox available for filing complaints against public servants for neglecting their duty. Still, why are there so few actual complaints filed? Mainly because students don’t know how and where to file a complaint, and students don’t believe that this complaint channel is effective.
Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) has long been invested in Taiwanese school campuses and children’s rights. From our first-hand observations, we see that it is difficult for the average person to distinguish between "teacher bullying" and "inappropriate corporal punishment and discipline," and if a complaint is filed incorrectly, it is likely to be deemed as inadmissible and the must be redone from the beginning. Second, people are unfamiliar with the complaint mechanism, and the processing procedures and transparency of the complaint mechanism rely heavily on the schools to explain and promote. However, the reality is that some schools are not even clear with the processing procedures themselves to even be able to promote the mechanism. Lastly, there must be evidence presented. After a student files a complaint, they must collect evidence themselves, but in addition to citing the inappropriate teacher behavior, they must also prove that they have suffered physical and mental trauma or impact on their academics. Some students even have to seek medical treatment or ask a doctor for relevant certification from the psychiatric department, but they may still be ruled as irrelevant to the teacher's behavior and thus can’t be counted as evidence for their case.
The difficulties that students often encounter when filing complaints reveal that the current mechanism is like beating the level that requires an incredible amount of determination and perseverance. In addition to overcoming the usual procedural hurdles, there are also intangible "impacts" that come with proceeding though this mechanism. Campus confidentiality has always been a problem; The identities of the whistleblowers and victims of bullying are often exposed. Would this cause teachers to treat them differently? Would they also be targeted by the school or classmates, causing "secondary harm" to them? We should be looking out for students during these processes, for they are often overwhelming, lengthy and complex investigation process. Even if a case has been filed, students may not trust that the teacher's behavior will improve. It is not surprising that students are hesitant to file complaints.
Given this, we, Child Welfare League Foundation, are making the following appeals:
1. Promptly disclose the investigation results of the Taichung student case as a reference for subsequent policies, systems, and supporting measures’ improvement.
2. In accordance with the conclusion on the International Review of the Second National Report of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Ministry of Education should provide a list of what is considered inappropriate teacher behavior patterns, and students should not be required to provide evidence of physical and mental trauma.
3. Establish a child-friendly complaint mechanism both within and outside of schools, widely publicize these complaint channels, and have protection clauses for whistleblowers. At the same time, counseling should be provided during the process to prevent secondary trauma.
CWLF will continue to monitor the developments of this case through Executive Yuan and the Taichung City Youth Welfare Bureau. We will actively participate in relevant legislative meetings and work towards promoting a more child-friendly central and local youth complaint mechanism, as well as the revision of relevant policies and laws regarding this.