If I were in your shoes, I would pack up and leave now. Threats of violence, that’s where I back out.
Your headmaster knows that she’ll be in deep shit if she is seen helping you. You are the lone foreigner without connections. You are therefore expendable, her school is not.
The polich won’t protect you. They are a bunch of useless, corrupt wankers anyway.
Leave for some weeks and return to a school in another town, preferably some distance away from Tainan.
The above sounds like really good advice. You are very quickly being hung out to dry and you’ll have no one to rely on. getting out now may be the only thing you can do. Good luck.
Talk is cheap when it comes to violence.
Very few people will actually go through with such things, but if you are worried about your saftey, pack up your things and get on the next train to Clarksville, er Taipei.
No one will follow you and you can melt in with the hoy-paloy here. And there are tons of teaching jobs.
As was said earlier, this guy paid his bills with insurance, so he is only shaking you down.
You could pre-emptively strike – go to the foreign affairs police and explain that you have been threatened and fear for your saftey.
Or get out of dodge.
About the threat and the demands… Maybe there is a way to test how serious the other party is: Get a small tape recorder or maybe one recording digitally. (You can still use it later for teaching or learning Chinese, so its not wasted money.) You said you contacted a lawyer before? Next time the negotiator of the other party comes to talk to you, put the recorder on the table and tell him (or them) that you would like to give your lawyer a better understanding of the situation, so with them agreeing you would like to record the original words to avoid wrong expressions and the like.
Do this explanation in a very polite way and watch his/their reactions. If they refuse to speak with the recorder working, you can at least be sure they are not walking on legal ground. The only thing you need to find out then is whether they are just trying a poker face or are already sharpening the melon knives behind their backs…
Taiwan is a place, where conflicts are often solved by erm… alternative means.
My inlaws once got a car dented by a couple of goons… While it was parked in front of their house. They called the police… who refused to come.
Being the leading candidate in local elections can be dangerous. There are instances, where the no 2 candidate has improved his chances by getting the no 1 contender bumped off.
Fat chance a tape recording is going to help, when the recorder breaks after being dumped in the nearest landfill… with the owner of the unfortunate device.
When it comes to threats of violence… Then this is Taiwan. You never know what people might be up to. Most locals (my wifes family, their acquintances etc) would pay up just in order to avoid the risk of getting their house burned down, while they are sleeping in it.
Moreover, teaching jobs are available everywhere on this island, so skip town, lay low on a beach for a few weeks and find another city to teach in.
I would be extremely careful of violent threats. If your boss has basically screwed you, you need to be very careful. I have been a victim of roadway violence and I can say with total conviction that I was not to blame. Oh yea and it was very painful. The whole time I was being assaulted a Cop (Taiwan cops are the most pathetic excuse for public servants in the known universe) watched and did nothing (so did the around 100 people who witnessed the blindsiding).
Hey it is only a job you can get another one somewhere else.
Are you working legally? If you are it won’t be so easy to just skip to Taipei, because your school will cancel your visa, and you will have to go out of the country, return as a tourist and then look for work. Even then, if you become legal again they could possibly find you - however, doubtful they would look.
Whatever happens unfortunately, you are finished at the school you are working at. Even if you pay the money, you can guarantee your boss is now frantically looking for a replacement for you, and as soon as it arrives, you will be fired. Think of it like this: you are now bad luck for her and her school, whether you pay or not. Don’t let the boss make some payment arrangement for you on the dubious grounds that she will give you more hours or guarantee your job.
Ask yourself now: how long did you intend to stay in Taiwan? If it was a year or less, pack up and go. If it was long term, then think about paying the money, and then get away from that school.
