New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-Yi (侯友宜) held a meeting on Sunday night with the parents of the children who attended the kindergarten suspected of administering anti-seizure medicine. But according to New Taipei City council member Lin Ping-yu’s (林秉宥) Facebook post, Hou asked at least 8 reserved school principals to buffer between him and the parents and protesters during and after the meeting.
New Taipei City Government Education Bureau chief Chang Ming-wen (張明文) said the reserved school principals are also staff of the bureau and the city government is merely using their expertise to communicate with the parents.
Mayor Hou’s New Taipei City Government has received backlash for its reported mishandling of an investigation of Banqiao kindergarten administering anti-seizure drugs to its students. While the education bureau chief Chang says the temporary transfer of the school principals to the meeting was merely putting the principals’ expertise to use, the screenshot of the city governments’ internal messaging group posted by the city council member shows that the city government labeled the principals as “human shields surrounding the mayor.”