The First Response...conclusion

  What made this nightmare all the more shocking and surprising was that for more than three of the four years I taught at the nursing university things were fine and I enjoyed my work, the students and my working relationship with colleagues and staff at the school was very good. To say that the false sex harassment accusation and underhanded attempts to snatch my job from under me came out of nowhere doesn't adequately describe the magnitude of how this hit me. Some of the same people who I had worked for and with, students who I had dedicated myself to teaching and helping, had betrayed me and cooperated in a very cowardly and ugly conspiracy to try and rid the school of the last foreign teacher standing in the way of the school's path to university status...as well as certain students' desperation to no longer have to face the difficulty of passing an English class taught by a non-Taiwanese instructor.

  Of course, it was not always this way. Here is the concluding part of The First Response:

On the positive side, many of these same students have also shown measurable improvement – speaking more English in class, higher test scores, etc - in their English skills no matter how low they were at the beginning.

I have an earnest and genuine passion and commitment to helping these students learn, grow and improve themselves. Is it right that the very people in high places of my institution should attack and stifle this passion and commitment and my right to be the best teacher I can through sound principles of teaching and widely acknowledged language learning methods? I wasn’t aware that institutions are eager to punish earnest, challenging, good teachers while rewarding dispassionate, fair or easy teachers with continued employment…and rewarding misbehavior and whining by lazy students by encouraging such activity.

How can any school call itself an institution of “higher learning”, and fulfill it’s mandatory academic requirements for English education, when it eliminates all (3 of) the native English instructors for a faculty of all Taiwanese teachers because they can do paperwork in Chinese? It would be like a college or university in America only employing American non-native speakers of Chinese to teach all levels of Chinese courses – no native Chinese faculty!

I have been fortunate too over the years to have many students and classes who appreciated my earnest, communicative teaching…students who understand and value the privilege and opportunity they have for higher education…and learning more accurately about the language and culture of my country. For those who care about the quality of their education, their positive comments and feedback have validated what I’m doing and made teaching in Taiwan very worthwhile.

In conclusion, throughout both of these unfair dilemmas I am facing, there have been some serious violations of my rights as a teacher and as a public employee:

1.   In the three years I’ve been teaching at the National Taipei College of Nursing, I have never had any formal evaluation of my teaching by anyone at the college nor any written warning of problems or deficiencies in my teaching.

2.   My current contract is due to expire on July 31, 2007, and to date I have not received any written notification that I will not be extended a new contract. By law, the college is required to either present me a new contract or notify me of non-renewal at least 60 days before the current contract expires.

3.   I heard about the student accusation from a college employee who should not have known about this issue. The employee also heard it from another employee and told me that the student’s accusation has been spreading around the college among students, faculty and staff…all of this a violation of my privacy rights concerning such an allegation.

4.  To date, I have not received any written notice of the student’s accusation against me.

5. On June 15, a college employee informed me that she was told the nursing college would hold a hearing about the student’s accusation…but to date I also have not received any written notice requesting my appearance for any hearing.

Although these crises are seemingly unconnected events, it’s a very strange coincidence the timing and the same people involved, and suspicious how the school has aligned these against me. In essence, what this all comes down to is that both some students and some administrators are trying to find a way to circumvent the norms of education and the law to make it easy for the students to get around the MOE’s English requirements so they will stop complaining and can graduate on time. Many students hope they can sit idly in class or fool around for 18 weeks and then magically pass the class. Students are supposed to be responsible and accountable for their part in learning and progressing…to earn whatever grade they get. If they don’t take responsibility for earning what they get now, when will they? What kind of nurses, employees, people will they be in the future?

Curtis W. Diggs Jr.

Threats & Blackmail: The Favored Weapon of Alice and Other Students in Taiwan

  It is not uncommon in Taiwan for students to threaten and blackmail a school's administration to get their way. I witnessed or heard about this bizarre and frightful situation at more than one school I taught at. In most cases, the student or students got most, if not all, they sought.

  During the first months of my nightmare situation with the nursing university, one of my colleagues confided in me that she was told Alice had also threatened the school. She told the school that if they did not take action on her accusation against me, and if they didn't reverse my contract renewal, that she would go to the media and report her allegation and accuse the school of not protecting her. 

  Later, in an email to me in February 2008, the same colleague reminded me of Alice's threat while explaining a then-current problem with other students who were threatening to go public with unflattering allegations in order to scare off students considering attending the school.

  Here's the part of her email discussing both threats:

Dr. Tsay was not present, but the vice chairperson of nursing department. She continued to say that these 'victim' students threatened the college if this matter cannot be solved with satisfaction, they are going to tell the perspective (sic) students of NTCN who are high school fellows of these 'victim' students that NTCN is a bad school and they'd better not come to study.  Wow!  It sounds familliar.  Do you remember that Alice Yang said the same thing that "if the mass media or legislators know about this harrassment, our college will not have the chance to upgrade..."  NTCN is afraid of being threatened.

The First Response...continued

  This nightmare wasn't the result of just one factor. Several factors were at play near the same time that culminated in something of a "perfect storm" of factions seeking my ouster and desperation to reverse my contract renewal which had already been approved.

 As you'll see in this second part of my response to Alice's accusation and the complaints about my teaching, some of my Taiwanese teaching colleagues and school administrators had also been doing their own dirty work to build support for no more native English-speaking teachers at the school. 

  Since my time there ended, in the 4 years since there have been NO MORE foreign teachers employed at this so-called university. In many places this would be treated as blatant discrimination and racism, but in the world of Taiwan this kind of practice is very much the norm when it comes to treatment of foreign nationals working and living there. Can you imagine a university in the U.S. getting rid of all its native Chinese-speaking teachers and only employing Americans to teach Chinese?   

  Continuing my letter:

I’m caught in the grips of three people with discriminatory and unfairly negative attitudes toward me and my teaching:

1.   My senior colleague, Mr. Paul Liu, who openly voices his racist attitude toward foreign teachers and his opinion that we are of no use – and it’s “unfair” in his words – because we are not able to do Chinese administrative paperwork related to some MOE projects. He has never formally spoken to me or given me anything in writing about student evaluations of my classes. On one occasion, though, he did informally comment in our office that my student evaluations were “much better” than his and that his students gave him low evaluations.

2.   The head of the nursing department, Dr. Tsay, who in front of me talks a nice, friendly,  game but behind my back is only concerned that her nursing students don’t have any trouble passing English (i.e. every student should pass regardless of their grade or ability). She has never spoken to me about any student feedback or evaluations about my class.

3.   The college president who also has voiced her opinion that the school doesn’t need any native English-speaking teachers because we can not do Chinese paperwork, and who displays the same attitude as Dr. Tsay that it’s not important the students really earn their pass in English, or that they should be prepared to pass the standardized English test, just find the easiest way for the students to pass the MOE English requirements to graduate NTCN. She also has never spoken to me about students’ feedback or evaluations in my course.

  Some of the same students who are complaining about my class are the same ones who come in 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes late…even skip the first hour of class or the whole class (2 hours) altogether and show up for the second class…or show up for the first class and skip the second one. These are the same students who don’t bring their books to class, don’t bring paper or a notebook, who sometimes or rarely do their homework. Who are these kind of lazy, unmotivated, whining students to criticize my teaching? These are the same students who while I am spending some time to lecture them, they’re displaying their lack of respect and attention by talking in Chinese, putting on makeup, talking on their cell phones, eating, etc. They are very poor examples of good students…and they certainly don’t know anything about teaching let alone learning. Who are they to be the sole judges of how I should teach?

  I’m always prepared for class and my method & philosophy of teaching is to facilitate the students learning through minimal lecturing and maximum involvement in learning activities…DOING not just listening to me talk. Through this method, I am also teaching the students how to do independent, self-learning which is crucial to them really being able to improve and sustain the improvement over time…not just to pass a test. I have exposed them to numerous sources on the internet for learning & practicing…not only English but also reading lots of useful and interesting content for their general knowledge and even professional knowledge.

  I’m highly insulted and more than disappointed that a so-called institution of higher learning, with administrators running around with advanced degrees, so-called Phds,  evidently have forgotten, didn’t learn, or don’t care about the fundamentals of teaching and learning. They care little about the means of educating & improving our younger generations, of preparing them adequately for the real world after school…just the ends of getting them out of the school. I am not only trying to teach these young – and sometimes older – students English, but also helping ready them for some things they will face in their lives and work that are not in the text books…to be responsible, diligent, honest and confident in all that they do.

The First Response to Alice's Allegation & Reports That My Contract Would Not Be Renewed

  One week after I heard about Alice's allegation, I wrote my first response to it and another problem I had been alerted to just days before the sexual harassment bombshell. One of my colleagues informed me she heard that my contract renewal was in jeopardy because of student complaints. 

  The main complaints were quite conflicting: some students said my class was too easy and they felt bored, while others said it was too hard and they couldn't understand when I spoke English in class...and they were scared they would not pass. Well, the primary reason for this dichotomy of complaints was caused by the powers-that-be themselves who had decided to regroup students in English courses at the start of that academic year. Instead of the normal and more sound practice of grouping student's together in the same level according to their entrance test scores, they decided to group the strongest "A" students with the weakest "D" in the same class. It was a disaster in the making! Little could I have imagined just how big a disaster it would eventually become.

  Here is Part I of what I wrote in response to Alice's accusation (which still had not been confirmed to me by the school administrators) and the newly-revealed student complaints: 

I am writing you because starting on Monday, June 11, I faced one of the most serious crises of my teaching career and personal life. First, I was informed by a concerned colleague that a student had reported me to the college (National Taipei College of Nursing) for “inappropriate contact” at an outside school activity the week before. Second, I was informed by another colleague that the college had decided not to renew my one-year teaching contract. I have been teaching in Taiwan off and on for over 9 years and have never experienced such an unfair, illegal and immoral situation. Here are some facts and thoughts about what is going on in my case, one which has happened to other foreign teachers and hopefully some stop can be put to these things happening to some of the many dedicated and good foreign teachers working far from home in Taiwan.

About the allegations from the student about inappropriate contact, I can unequivocally say that no such unwelcome or untoward behavior occurred at that time or any other time in my teaching career. I am a man and teacher of high integrity, high morals and unfailing respect for everyone…man or woman.  It is not in my character, behavior or conduct to ever touch someone else inappropriately. Anyone who knows me well enough would never believe such a thing as the student has accused me of would happen. I will defend myself vigorously and to the full extent of the law and expose the falseness of this accusation.

The second crisis concerns exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims by certain students at the college about my teaching and the illegal procedures the college has followed (or not followed) to deny me a new contract.

I am no ordinary, average teacher.  Who said I’m supposed to be ordinary? Is it not a teacher’s responsibility to challenge their students to reach higher and do what they haven’t before in order to learn, improve and achieve? I was hired to teach English and help these students to prepare for their future careers that almost certainly require a certain level of work-related English to perform their duties properly. Plus, they must also pass a standardized English proficiency test (TOEIC, TOEFL, etc) in order to graduate from NTCN.  It’s one of my goals to help them have a better chance at passing that test.

Pre-Accusation Efforts to Scuttle My Employment by a Student Clique

  The seeds of this sinister character & career assassination attempt were actually planted several months before Alice's false sexual harassment accusation. About 7 months earlier I was told confidentially by one of my American former colleagues at the nursing university that I should be on the alert that Dr. Tsay was trying to gather support for my ouster as the sole remaining foreign instructor there. 
  He told me, however, that she did not have the support of the majority of other teachers on the Teachers Committee that approved contract renewals every academic year. Shortly after his phone call, I was also reassured by one of the senior Taiwanese professors on the committee that I had her and others' support and not to worry. I was at first surprised to hear this news as I had not gotten any unusual complaints about my teaching or other work there and, in the 4 years I taught at the school I had received mostly good to very positive evaluations from students. Mysteriously, however, I had never been evaluated by any of my supervisors - verbally or in writing - nor had I gotten any negative feedback from the English group chair or department chairperson at any of our staff meetings during those four years. 
  It wasn't until almost three years after my world as I knew it suddenly came crashing down that I learned of another early plot to scuttle my employment at the nursing university. A special woman I've known for 8 years now, and the strongest supporter of my innocence and fighter against the injustice I've suffered, happened upon a February 2007 online posting by a nursing university student calling on other students to cooperate together and submit complaints to the Office of Academic Affairs in an effort to halt my coming contract renewal for the next academic year.
  I had witnessed students collaborating together on end-of-course teacher evaluations which were supposed to be done under supervised conditions and independently, but instead were often given to students to take home for a few days or a week and then returned.  Unpopular teachers sometimes didn't return for the next semester or academic year after being gang-reamed by a posse of unhappy students. This was the first time I had witnessed the electronic version of their character assaults on a teacher.
  Here is the original Chinese version of the post (where they refer to me by the first part of my Chinese name - Ke) and a rough Google English translation:

o  Name： 白

o    Subject：拜託~

o    Time：2007-02-05 14:50:07

Message：學校要處理柯赤子嚴重遲到的事情 需要我們把他具體罪狀寄到metrostar@ntcn.edu.tw
同學們可以把他上課不當的行為通通寫出來
教務處要處理他的問題
需要同學們的合作
請同學們有意見的人一定要寄!!!
PS要盡快寄喔 因為這幾天他們就要開會處理了
PS 英文成績還沒出來是因為柯先生沒有交成績就回美國度假了

Schools to deal with serious late Ke pure things we need to send him specific countsmetrostar@ntcn.edu.tw
Students can put all his class to write out improper behavior
Office of Academic Affairs to deal with his problem
Students need the cooperation
There are views of the people must ask someone to send!!!
PS Oh send as soon as possible because these days they will meet to deal with the
PS English results have not come out because of Mr. Ke scores do not pay back the U.S. on vacation


 

And the Hits Kept Coming! More Conflicted, Disturbing Ramblings of Alice

  In one of the most revealing of Alice's English blog posts in October 2007 that I managed to capture before she deleted them all, she writes about her conflicted feelings toward her family, toward love...and most disturbingly about how people will realize a terrible thing about themselves: their minds have "many many wicked grime must be clean." 
  This is someone who has some SERIOUS psychological and emotional issues...issues that the nursing university quite deftly twisted and manipulated to their benefit without any evidence, and my lawyers and the court totally disregarded despite the evidence I produced. 
  Here is her post with my highlights in red:

Back in the Saddle Again: Reporting on Taiwan's Human & Legal Rights Abuses

  Recently I've resumed posting on my other blog which focuses more on another aspect of my long-running Taiwan nightmare as well as broader human and legal rights abuses on the island.
  Check out The 21st Century 'White Terror': Injustice and Human Rights Abuses By Taiwan's Government and Judiciary .
  My most recent posts include:

  The Gross Mishandling of a Foreign Student’s Alleged Rape

  Obstacle to Fair Treatment of Foreigners in Taiwan: A Dose of Reality Behind  

  Multiculturalism on the Island

  Human Rights & Human Dignity: Style Over Substance in Taiwan

As I Prepare to Meet The Lawmaker, Stress Finally Takes Its Toll on My New Job

----- 原始信件 ----
寄件者: Curt D <in8aqua@yahoo.com>
收件者: 彭 向陽 sypeng48@yahoo.com.tw
寄件日期: 2007/10/16(星期二) 上午9:17:57
主　旨: Lawyer & lawmaker

Dear Dr. Peng,

  Hi. I am awaiting the lawyer's follow up on my case and will update you after. I have made him aware that you would like to tell him more detail about what has happened with the nursing college including about my contract and the accusation + school process.

  Meanwhile, the lawmaker would like to meet me on Thursday at 11 a.m. Do you have time this Thursday to go with me to meet him? I will also ask Adeline if she can go. It would be good if at least one of you could go to provide some details and to help bridge the Chinese - English gap between me and the lawmaker.

  Yesterday the Cambridge Taipei school said they will let me finish out my current classes and take a break - so I guess their meaning is I can look for another job. I will finish one class this Thursday, another next Tuesday and the last one in November, so I will start looking for another job this week. I'll also decide what things to do to get myself back in better physical and mental health.

Regards,

Curtis

----- Original Message ----
From: 彭 向陽 <sypeng48@yahoo.com.tw>
To: Curt D <in8aqua@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:37:40 PM
Subject: Re: Lawyer & lawmaker

Dear Curtis:

I would like to meet the lawmaker with you on Thursday at 11:am, if the lawmaker thinks that it will be helpful for clarifying the whole event.
Please show me the address and the name of the lawmaker's office.

On my opinion, the most useful is that to win from the lawsuit, you should put your main attention on it. 

Good luck in looking for new job!

                                                                                With Regards

                                                                                        SY Peng  Oct 16 2007

New Lawyer Lays Out My Options While the Stress Affects My New Job

----- 原始信件 ----
寄件者: Curt D <in8aqua@yahoo.com>
收件者: 彭 向陽 <sypeng48@yahoo.com.tw>
寄件日期: 2007/10/14(星期日) 下午6:44:52
主　旨: Lawyer

Dear Dr. Peng,

  Hi! I called you several times on Saturday, but your cell phone was not available. I met the lawyer on Friday evening, and basically he said there may be three possible ways to pursue the case against the student and NTCN. One is administrative - directly with the school - another is by a civil lawsuit, and the other is by a criminal lawsuit. He made copies of the documents I brought and said he and his colleagues will review them to see more clearly what has happened and more precisely what action can be taken. He will probably need to talk to you at a later date after the action(s) I can take are certain and we agree on the fees for services. He said he could also tell me more precisely the cost after he knows what action(s) can be taken. He will answer me as soon as possible.

  Meanwhile, I have been feeling increasingly under stress and physically/mentally exhausted, so I requested a reduction in my teaching hours at Cambridge (from 20 to 15) or if it is not possible, then I will give them my 30-day notice to leave and look for another job. I have been working from Monday to Saturday, usually out of my apartment around 11 a.m. and not home until after 8 or 11 p.m. every day except Saturday.

Regards,

Curtis

----- Original Message ----
From: 彭 向陽 <sypeng48@yahoo.com.tw>
To: Curt D <in8aqua@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 2:55:45 PM
Subject: Re: Lawyer

Dear Curtis:

Sorry! I did not open my cell phone last Saturday afternoon, for its the time for laboratory work.  And I read the e mail this noon.

I am glad to see that you have made up your mind to call for lawsuit. 

Please let your Lawyer know that I would like to answer his questions.

Be make sure that no matter what kind of action the Lawyer may take, he should really help to to win the appeal. 

Take care of yourself, your normal physical situation will be one of the key points for you to win the lawsuit. The time course of the lawsuit may not shorter than three months.  

Keep in contact with me and Adeline.

                                                                                  with Regards

                                                                                          SY Peng  Oct 15 2007