01 Investigation
Author: Zheng Jiaru
2020-10-20 07:00
Last update date: 2020-10-20 07:00
In the past year, "Hong Kong 01" investigated in detail the accidents involving children with intellectual disabilities in Hong Chi Songling Second School.
In addition to children whose phalanx was clipped, separated or restrained for a long period of time, there were even children who died of the brain behind the throat.
When a dormitory for mentally handicapped children funded by the Education Bureau has suffered serious problems over the years, who is to blame?
It turned out that aided special schools are only managed by the Education Bureau, and their dormitories are exempted from the Residential Homes for the Disabled Ordinance and are not subject to the supervision of the SWD's institutional inspection system. However, many industry professionals pointed out separately that the Education Bureau has rarely supervised the dormitories. The former staff of Songling No. 2 School also stated that they have never seen government officials or Hong Chi Association personnel inspect the dormitory.
The Labour Party Legislative Council Member Zhang Chaoxiong directly denounced the Hong Chi Association incident as an outrage. Two years ago, the private institution Cambridge House had a shady case. Now the school dormitory has another problem, and the parents have no way out. He is even more worried that the mother in Kwai Chung Village was suspicious of pressure. The tragedy of the mentally retarded parents and children is repeated, calling on the authorities to investigate and investigate and strengthen supervision.
A Hong Chi Association spokesperson stated that the new principal understands the significance and responsibility of caring for students with severe intellectual disabilities and will continue to work hard.
According to the Education Bureau, school dormitory manpower has increased this school year.
01Investigation report on "Silent Scream"
Silent Shouts·Special Page｜Exposing the Shady of Multiple Student Accidents in the Dormitory of Special Schools with Serious Mental Disabilities
Silent Scream, One | Hong Chi Club Dormitory Mentally Handicapped Child Fractured by Finger
Silent Scream 2｜The mentally handicapped children in Hong Chi Club's dormitory have been locked in rooms and chairs for a long time
Silent Shout·3 | Hong Chi Association Mentally Handicapped Children Suffocated with Throat, Blackened Face and Brainstem Died in Hospital for Three Years
Silent Cry·Four | School dormitories and private homes repeatedly explode, expose system defects and take care of black holes
▼Hong Chi Association Songling Second School has many accidents in recent years▼
"In the end, it is supervised by a camera." A social worker who used to work as a dormitory parent in Hong Chi Association Songling No. 2 School described how the school dormitory is supervised.
In the past few years in the school, many school children have been restrained and separated for a long time, some school children were caught by the door and their fingers were broken, and some school children died of the brain from the back of the throat.
Why is there no one in a government-sponsored school sponsored by a large-scale school organization to discover and correct long-term problems in the school in time?
▼Closed circuit television when Wenzi folder hand incident ▼
Hong Chi will set up 14 special schools accounting for one-third of Hong Kong
Hong Chi Association is one of the largest charities in Hong Kong, mainly serving people with intellectual disabilities.
Of the 42 aided special schools in Hong Kong that accept children with varying degrees of intellectual disability, 14 are established by the Hong Chi Association.
Four of the Hong Chi Association schools have dormitories, including the Pine Ridge Second School in Tai Po.
As people with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities, many also have a series of health problems, such as cramps, brain epilepsy and other physical disabilities, so schools that accept children with severe intellectual disabilities have residential services to facilitate them to receive round-the-clock care outside class .
▼Kangzai's throat accident school record▼
Dormitories in aided special schools are exempted from the Regulations on Institutions under the jurisdiction of the Education Bureau
Residential homes for the disabled in Hong Kong are generally governed by the "Residential Homes for the Disabled Ordinance" and are under the jurisdiction of the Social Welfare Department. However, the ordinance stipulates that it does not apply to dormitories in special education schools funded by the Education Bureau that accept disabled children.
In terms of structure, subsidized special schools with residential services are divided into a school department and a dormitory department. The "special school support group" of the "Special Education Division" of the Education Bureau is supervised by districts to manage and communicate.
However, the three dormitory staff of Songling Second School who had been interviewed by "Hong Kong 01" all said that even though the dormitory has had many serious accidents over the years, they had never seen the Education Bureau or the Hong Chi Association of the school-sponsoring organization inspect the dormitory during their employment.
The former social worker C even directly criticized that there were senior social workers in the school who had caused serious injuries to school children on many occasions. However, the then principal seemed to deal with the situation according to the level of parental concern. The employee is still working, so he believes that the principal does not take the situation squarely.
Cai Leiyan, the retired principal of Zhenhe School, pointed out that the Education Bureau did not pay much attention to the dormitory department.
(Photo by Cen Zhuoxi)
Retired principal: external reviews fail to focus on dormitory education bureaus
Under the "school-based policy", the Education Bureau mainly evaluates the quality and performance of each special school through school self-evaluation and external evaluation (external evaluation), the same as ordinary schools.
According to the Education Bureau website, "external review" means that the Bureau will send staff from the Bureau of Education and front-line school personnel to the school every three to five years for three to five days to read documents, observe and interview with each staff, and then write External evaluation report and suggestions for school improvement.
Cai Leiyan, the retired principal of Zhenhe School, who worked in a school for severely mentally disabled children funded by the Education Bureau for more than 30 years, pointed out that the content of the external evaluation is mainly to evaluate the teaching quality of the school.
As for the care and nursing care provided by the dormitory department, such as feeding and showering, some of the external review teams are special education experts, but most of them are not familiar with the needs and operations of the dormitory department. "The Education Bureau has never paid much attention to the dormitory department. Because no one is familiar with the dormitory department."
▼Lele has been tied up for a long time with bruises all over his body▼
Two external reviews of Songling Second School 9 years ago staff: no inspection
Looking at the external evaluation reports over the years, the external reviewers went to Songling No. 2 School for evaluation in 2009. It is recommended that the school prepare a clear life process for the students as soon as possible. It is also mentioned that the principal will master the daily dormitory by handing in the change book and daily change meeting. Working conditions.
However, the school subsequently accepted the external evaluation until 2018, which is nine years away from the last external evaluation. The report did not mention the situation of the dormitory department.
Except for the evaluation, both the three interviewed former staff in the dormitory of Songling No. 2 School or the two retired principals of the school for children with intellectual disabilities confirmed that the Education Bureau has not inspected the dormitories of special schools during their tenure.
A spokesman for the Education Bureau pointed out that the Bureau uses external evaluation as an external quality assurance mechanism. Since this school year, the ranks of school dormitory management staff with more than 40 places have been upgraded and the staffing establishment has also increased.
▼01 reporter unannounced visit to Songling Second School▼
SWD will conduct inspections of private institutions
This is different from the residential homes for the disabled under the jurisdiction of the Social Welfare Department, which need to be operated in accordance with the SWD’s "Service Quality Standards Implementation Manual" and require unannounced inspections by the Institution Licensing Office.
The inspection team can also inspect various institutions’ documents, such as residents, doctors and accident records. In the event of serious violations, the SWD also has the right to “pin” the institutions.
▼Recalling the shady scenes of the 2016 Disabled Homes "Cambridge House"▼
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The uneven quality of private hospitals has exploded the "Cambridge House" shady
Although the institutions under the SWD system have more regulatory requirements, and the resources and staffing are even more in short supply than dormitories in schools subsidized by the Education Bureau, there have been many tragedies in private institutions in the past.
Since the establishment of the Regulations on Residential Homes for People with Disabilities in 2011, only two homes have been "pinned" by the Social Welfare Department. For the first time, in 2016, there were six bizarre deaths of residents and the director suspected of sexual assault on residents. The home is "Cambridge House".
▼The incident occurred in the dormitory of Hong Chi Association of Tai Po Songling Second School▼
The Education Bureau has no clear and specific guidelines
The dormitory department of special schools receives funding from the Education Bureau. What guidelines are they actually operating under?
The 210-page "Regulations on Aid for Special Schools" set out requirements for enrollment, recruitment, dormitory staffing, and salary, but there is no specific mention of how dormitories should operate.
Among the more than one hundred laws of the Education Ordinance, only Articles 56, 57, and Annex 1, which simply mention that the dormitory of a boarding school should have the size, number of toilets and other basic facilities.
Special schools, like ordinary schools, need to formulate school-based guidelines.
Cai Leiyan believes that special schools mainly rely on the principal to manage the dormitories in a "school-based" manner, and each school is unique.
For example, she pointed out that when she was the principal, she required employees to record the reason and time in a document every time they used restraint and isolation tools, but this was her personal practice and not every school had the same measures.
"For schools, the dormitory is really not supervised." Cai pointed out that the district inspectors of the Education Bureau may not have special education experience, but when an accident occurs or a parent complains to the Education Bureau, the bureau may send People mediation.
She believes that because students with severe intellectual disabilities cannot speak well, the Education Bureau should provide more support for such schools, such as attending doctors and health workers positions and related training.
Professor Xian Quanfeng pointed out that the dormitory department of the school for social education is under the dual supervision of the Education Bureau and the Social Welfare Department.
(Profile Picture / Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
The dormitory department of the "School for Social Education" is under dual supervision by the Social Welfare Department and the Education Bureau
It is also a special school funded by the Education Bureau. The main service is "group education school" for students with emotional problems. The supervision system of the dormitory department is very different from that of severely mentally handicapped schools.
The Director of the Centre for Special Learning Needs and Inclusive Education of The Education University of Hong Kong, Xian Quanfeng, pointed out that compared with the school for mentally handicapped children with dormitories, the principal is managed by one person, while the principal for social education schools is managed by the principal and the dean is in charge of the dormitory. With funding and supervision from the SWD, the dormitories are subject to evaluation and inspection by the SWD, as well as external evaluation arranged by the Education Bureau.
Xian pointed out that some larger school-running groups generally have schools under the management of the Director-General of the Ministry of Education, and some groups also set up dormitory committees to discuss major accidents or engineering plans.
However, C, a former social worker at Songling No. 2 School, said that during his tenure, he had only seen Hong Chi send someone to the dormitory to audit, and no one came to supervise and inspect the operation.
▼Murder in Kwai Chung Village in September▼
Zhang Chaoxiong: How dumb and tolerant parents are at fault
The Labor Party Legislative Council Member Zhang Chaoxiong described the practice of Songling Second School as annoying, "I can’t imagine that the school treats students the same way. It must be found out. If the affected children are still in the school, they must check immediately. Whether the graduates have been affected by abuse experience.”
Zhang pointed out that there are currently gaps in services for people with intellectual disabilities in pre-school, primary and secondary schools and adult stages: pre-school and adult services are managed by the Social Welfare Department, and residential places need to be queued, but primary and secondary schools are allocated by the Education Bureau.
Recently, a mentally handicapped child in Kwai Chung Village was strangled to death by his mother. The reason was that his son had reached 21 years of age and had to leave school after graduation. No more school places were allowed, but he had not been waiting for an adult institution. The son had to stay at home. A tragedy occurred when the mother was under pressure.
"Private homes are afraid to go, children's homes are not waiting, and school dormitories are not available. They can only be trapped at home and fight with animals. There is really no way out." Zhang pointed out that many parents would rather be dumb to avoid their children being caught The school refused to extend the places.
Zhang also pointed out that the dormitory of special schools should be re-incorporated into the "Residential Institutions Ordinance" management, and the Education Bureau is also duty-bound, and should provide users with better channels to avoid threats to complain, rather than just use every time a parent complaint Referral back to the school for school-based processing.
A surprise inspection will surely reveal
Zhang Chaoxiong believes that the Songling Second School incident is not an isolated incident overnight. If there is active inspection, it will definitely be discovered.
Zhang Chaoxiong, Cai Leiyan, and Li Zhirong, spokesperson for the Parents Association of Persons with Severe Intellectual Disabilities, all believe that the Education Bureau now receives complaints from parents, and they often refer them back to schools for processing on the grounds of "school-based complaints".
However, parents usually approach the Education Bureau because they think that the school will not face the problem squarely or are unwilling to communicate with the school.
Li Zhirong believes that the current bureau’s requirements for school self-management are not comprehensive, and should consider referring to the SWD’s practices, and at least spot checks on school dormitories.
01 Special page for investigating the "Silent Scream" investigation report: uncovering multiple student accidents in the dormitory of a special school with severe mental disabilities
Silent Scream, One | Hong Chi Club Dormitory Mentally Handicapped Child Fractured by Finger
Silent Scream 2｜The mentally handicapped children in Hong Chi Club's dormitory have been locked in rooms and chairs for a long time
Silent Shout·3 | Hong Chi Association Mentally Handicapped Children Suffocated with Throat, Blackened Face and Brainstem Died in Hospital for Three Years
01News
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