Yes, I was a naughty boy and taught and got caught at kindergarten.
To set the scene, this is down in the former Tainan County, so really on the outermost fringes of the give-a-shit radar with regards to English teaching.
I came into school by bicycle at around 8:45, and out of the corner of my eye spotted a congregation of folks on the other side of the road by the 7-11.
Thought nothing of it.
Teacher B arrived a little later, mentioned it, but didn’t think too much of it either.
Class started at 9:00 and then at around 9:10 a frantic teacher entered the classroom with a quiet, but firm “Go to the roof! NOW!”
Members of the National Immigration Agency and Bureau of Labor Affairs had approached the building from both entrances and I suppose spotted us going up, but after a few minutes they came to the roof with video cameras in hand to document everything.
We went downstairs, were taken to our classrooms (of course, still being filmed), where Anna of Labor Affairs asked the kids if they knew who we were to which the little ones all enthusiastically replied “Teacher _____!” (bless their innocence). I suppose this was for evidence of our teaching there that the kids knew who we were.
The three of us were escorted to the school office, where we were asked a few questions and showered with apologies and explanations as to why this had all happened. Aside: after talking with others, no-one (locals) believes this kind of thing can happen, in fact I’ve had to repeat myself over and over again that this really does happen.
Anyways, there were three of us, A on ARC, B on APRC (with Open Work Permit) and me with JFRV. Residence status has relevance later.
Anna (from Labor Affairs) explained to us, the school manager and the boss that we were in violation of xyz clause of the blah blah act and that we were teaching illegally, and that our employer was not allowed to hire us to teach.
We all had to sign a declaration of guilt stating as such. It also stated that we had not resisted their efforts to catch us and that we had been cooperative. They entered our details on the document. I read through the whole thing (it’s in Chinese) with some assistance from the office staff just to verify everything (you can never be too sure). The document also stated when we had started working there, how many hours per day we taught and how much we had been paid. They also made copies of our resident cards.
A, B and I were told to go back to our classrooms to pack up all our things so we wouldn’t have to go back at any time. Our employer also had to pay us in full up to the current date. He was required to do it immediately and we waited while he went to withdraw money and we signed for it.
B and I were told to just leave and not return to the school. A had to go to the NIA for processing.
Although the official said he would drive A to the NIA, A went by car and met the official at the offices later.
A’s paperwork took an unusually long time to process. Three months AFAIR, but it would usually only be 1-2 weeks.
A was eventually deported, although given a very long extension due to special medical circumstances. Despite this extension, the ARC was cancelled and NHI was stopped, meaning full price medical care only. Ouch.
This was a rather freak occasion, as the authorities in Tainan in general just let life go on as long as you don’t kill anyone. Anna explained that there had been multiple reports to the education department in Tainan, which of course were more or less ignored. The same person had got into direct contact with the education department in Taipei to tell them that Tainan were sitting on their hands. That person pressed Taipei, Taipei then pressed Tainan to take action, and finally Tainan pressed down on the school and us. In hindsight there was a total of three months where I saw Anna three times, twice at my cram school (only once to check on my status there), A had also seen Anna before. Since that time, all the officials have returned to their usual quiet ways.