Back then, he was reportedly slammed multiple times by his classmates and his coach. The child then fell into a coma, and since then his life has been sustained by the help of hospital machines. Her parents decided to withdraw the life support after 70 days, according to local media reports.
The boy’s coach, who is in his late 60s, has been charged with physical assault resulting in serious injury and using a minor to commit a crime, according to the local Taipei Times news site.
His trainer, identified only as Ho, was released earlier this month on NT$100,000 (approximately IDR 52 million) bail. At 9 pm Tuesday, Fengyuan Hospital announced that the child’s blood pressure and heart rate had decreased.
After doctors spoke with his family, they agreed to withdraw life support. On Taiwanese social media, many netizens said, “now no more pain, my sister”.
While others called for tougher action to be taken against the coach and compensation to be given to the boy’s parents.
The case of a boy surviving after being slammed to the floor 27 times during judo practice by a coach and his friend shocked Taiwan and highlighted what critics say is a culture of turning a blind eye to child abuse.
He is a Super Mario fan, sports enthusiast, and once won third place in a running race. Earlier in April, he convinced his family that he wanted to try judo training.
Just two weeks after practice, he lay in a coma. His condition will likely continue to be in a vegetative state, or be unable to move normally, even if he survives.
A video emerged, which showed him being slammed onto a mat by an older classmate during judo practice. As practice continued, he was heard screaming “my feet”, “my head” and “I don’t want this!”. But his coach kept telling him to stand up and telling the older boys to keep slamming him.
When Wei Wei was too weak to get up, his trainer, who was much bigger than him, picked him up and slammed him several times. At one point, the child vomited, but the “practice” did not stop.
In all, his family said, he was slammed more than 27 times. Wei Wei finally fainted and was taken to the hospital. Doctors said the boy had suffered a severe brain haemorrhage. He is now in a coma and fitted with devices to keep him alive.
“I still remember that morning when I dropped her off at school,” her mother said.
“He turned around and said, ‘Mama goodbye.’ At night, he’s already become like this.”
Authority and abuse
The judo coach, who is in his late 60s and identified only by the surname Ho, has been detained for investigation into alleged negligence causing serious injury. He denies any wrongdoing, according to the Taichung District Court.
The district prosecutor initially released him after questioning, accepting his explanation that what happened to Wei Wei was part of “normal training”.
But after the boy’s family held a press conference, the court said there was evidence to suspect the coach may have committed a serious crime and there was a risk of cooperating with witnesses.
The court granted the prosecutor’s request to place him in incommunicado detention – that is, a person is not allowed to have contact with anyone except his lawyer.
Experts say Wei Wei’s case has raised troubling questions that highlight a fundamental problem in Taiwan’s attitudes towards children and learning.
The main question is: why hasn’t anyone stopped the coach?
There were adults in the judo studio who witnessed what happened, including Wei Wei’s uncle, who reportedly shot a video to show the boy’s mother that judo might not be for him.
“In the East, it is common to expect children to endure adversity and obey authority,” said Joanna Feng, executive director of the Humanistic Education Foundation, an NGO that has lobbied for years to end corporal punishment and child abuse.
“In our culture, teachers are treated as very great people.”
This attitude of obedience and respect for the teacher was so deep that it might explain why no adults – including the boy’s uncle – were present to question the coach’s authority, despite the boy’s screams.
Wei Wei’s mother later told reporters that her uncle felt “very bad about what happened”.
“They might think that since the coach asked, I shouldn’t go against the coach’s terms,” Feng said. “We’ve seen many examples of this reaction and mindset; even in serious cases.”
In one incident, for example, the parent of a student who was filmed being kicked in the stomach by an opera teacher several times, not only defended his coach, but also apologized for causing him trouble.
In another case, no complaint was filed against a gymnastics coach who was recorded slapping one of his students and pulling another student’s hair, causing him to fall backwards while on the way to a competition in Thailand.
Corporal punishment at school
Wang Yan-shu, director of the Association for the Promotion of Campus Harmony, a parent group working to stop corporal punishment, said that this silence has a lot to do with Taiwanese culture.
“Our culture makes a lot of people not fully respect children’s rights. It’s better now, but Taiwan really lags behind other developed countries in this aspect of human rights,” Wang said.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education noted that 625 students had been subjected to corporal punishment in schools. Although hitting students has been banned in Taiwan since 2007, and corporal punishment continues to decline, the practice still exists, and the attitude of tolerance persists.
“If adults do that to each other, it will definitely be a problem. How can we do that to children?” she says. “This shows that we still consider children’s rights to be less important than adult rights.”
Hank Hsu, whose teenage son was allegedly beaten and verbally abused by his teacher almost daily for a year, said Wei Wei’s case had brought back painful memories from 2017, the year he and his wife learned about the abuse their son endured.
“He pulled my son out of class and hit him with a pipe or stick or kicked him with his knee,” Hsu said.
“He also often made my son kneel outside the teacher’s office. The principal and other teachers saw this, but did nothing.”
The Ministry of Education told the BBC it advised schools and teachers not to use corporal punishment. Teachers who cause physical or mental injury can be suspended for between one and four years, dismissed, or barred from being employed as teachers for life.
In reality, however, most teachers are given only short suspensions or suspensions – few are dismissed. The teacher of Mr. Hsu’s son was given a light sentence and fine.
The culture of abuse starts at home
The justice system also tends to side with teachers, said Hsu. Prosecutors in his son’s case did not charge the teacher despite causing the injury, arguing the family had to prove that his injuries were related to the violence.
Hsu added that some parents at school later blamed him, saying things like: “You didn’t teach your child well. Why didn’t he do his homework?”
In fact, it is not uncommon throughout Asia for parents to discipline their children in such a harsh way. In Taiwan, some parents beat their children for getting low test scores.
Last year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare received reports of 12,610 cases of violence against children, most of which occurred at home.
However, many cases go unreported due to the belief that children must be strictly disciplined in order for them to learn. “Taiwanese still don’t attach much importance to this issue and even remain silent,” Wang said.
The Education Ministry said it had now asked local governments and sports associations to increase surveillance of sports groups and raise awareness about safety during sports.
But critics say Wei Wei’s case has exposed long-standing loopholes in the system – the coach is allowed by the local judo association to teach even though he doesn’t have a permit and the studios run by the association are not adequately supervised by the government.
In addition, the public is not taught to recognize that all forms of abuse are unacceptable and they should intervene when they see abusive behavior towards children.
“In dealing with this incident, the perpetrators must be held accountable, the people who know about it must be held accountable, and the system must be held accountable,” the Humanistic Education Foundation said in a statement.
“The government has a responsibility to tell the people that it is everyone’s responsibility to protect children!”
They added that a child should not be seriously injured to bring about change. “We need to educate adults to truly respect and protect children,” Feng said. “This is the responsibility of the government. The government and the people need to re-evaluate themselves.”
We are waiting for him to wake up
Previously, Wei Wei’s family said they did not understand how the coach could treat their child like this.
They said the coach initially told Wei Wei’s uncle that he was feigning unconsciousness and then told his father that Wei Wei deliberately fell hard on the mat.
They are determined to “seek justice”.
Shortly after the boy fell into a coma, his parents spent every day at his hospital bed. His father showed him a photo of Wei Wei lying next to the doll Mario, his favorite character, which he bought for him.
“When I visited him at the hospital, I talked to him,” said his father, Mr Huang.
“I want Wei Wei to hear that we are waiting for him to wake up.”
However, on the evening of Tuesday 29 June, that hope was dashed, as they decided to give up life support to Wei Wei.
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