Comment rife about heavy school bags after Thai student needs surgery for bent spine

[webfact]

 

Daily News reported that comment was widespread on Facebook after a post on Udonthani Update by the relative of a 15 year old student.

 

The M4 (fourth year of secondary school) student needed emergency surgery when doctors found her spine bent after she complained of great pain.

 

An appeal for group A blood was made though this was stood down after the family received the required donation. 

 

The poster said that doctors thought the spine problem was caused by carrying a heavy school bag.

 

This prompted many people online to comment on that issue. 

 

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[AlexRich]

I don’t think a heavy school bag leads to that level of deformity. I suspect a medical reason underpins it, otherwise you’d expect Thai children to resemble a gang of Quasimodo’s. ????

[EVENKEEL]

The heavy bags are terrible. I pay decent money at an English program school. I sent an email to the principal stating lockers for students was needed. No response. No reason to drag books around that aren't needed.

[Moonlover]

7 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

I don’t think a heavy school bag leads to that level of deformity. I suspect a medical reason underpins it, otherwise you’d expect Thai children to resemble a gang of Quasimodo’s. ????

I agree. A lateral displacement like that, if cause by carrying a heavy load would displace the shoulders and they clearly are not.

 

This is a medical condition called scollosis which most commonly occurs during puberty.

[Captain Monday]

That looks like scoliosis but do students in Thailand still have textbooks??

I did at school and until 6 or 7 years ago at work. Now everything is on an iPad.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

 

The poster said that doctors thought the sine problem was caused by carrying a heavy school bag.

 

I’d be very worried about the quality of the Doctors if they are making such daft assumptions... 

 

.... unless of course the pupil has been required to carry an excessive weight in a back-pack all day every day for the past decade while no other student has.

 

The half-witted conclusions seemingly well educated people make here in Thailand is often astonishing.

(perhaps not just limited to Thailand, but I am here and this is what I see, here).

 

[foreverlomsak]

38 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

That looks like scoliosis but do students in Thailand still have textbooks??

I did at school and until 6 or 7 years ago at work. Now everything is on an iPad.

My daughter has moved to a new high school, she had so many text books that I nearly failed to lift / carry them, the pack must have been 18 in high and most books approx. A4 size. Exercise books was an additional pack.

They gave her a timetable which shows the period times, the room numbers, the teachers names, but no subject names, so she needs to carry all the books all the time, at least for a couple of weeks.

[Crusader]

I just do not understand why some schools insist on students carrying all therir books home every day.

[Asquith Production]

16 minutes ago, Crusader said:

I just do not understand why some schools insist on students carrying all therir books home every day.

Because the school would have to buy expensive lockers/storage. Its cheaper to store the books at home

[MasterBaker]

ever heard about backpacks?

[EVENKEEL]

1 hour ago, Asquith Production said:

Because the school would have to buy expensive lockers/storage. Its cheaper to store the books at home

It's stupid the books have to be taken home every day. Lockers or cubby holes for books is needed.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, MasterBaker said:

ever heard about backpacks?

Every kid that passes my house on the way to and from school has a Backpack. And that's a lot of kids!

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I’d be very worried about the quality of the Doctors if they are making such daft assumptions... 

 

.... unless of course the pupil has been required to carry an excessive weight in a back-pack all day every day for the past decade while no other student has.

 

The half-witted conclusions seemingly well educated people make here in Thailand is often astonishing.

(perhaps not just limited to Thailand, but I am here and this is what I see, here).

 

I very much doubt whether that was the doctor's diagnosis. Netizens can be very imaginative people, as we should all know by now. And the press here aren't much better. ????

 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The poster said that doctors thought the spine problem was caused by carrying a heavy school bag

I'd find another hospital for the operation.

[Bangkok Barry]

When I was at school we had something called a desk where we kept our books overnight.

[EVENKEEL]

23 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

When I was at school we had something called a desk where we kept our books overnight.

Too many students for that. I had the same, desk I mean.

[GreasyFingers]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

When I was at school we had something called a desk where we kept our books overnight.

You obviously did not go through the Wyndham system in Australia during the first years. The science books alone weighed 15 kilos and we did not have backpacks, just the usual school case of those days.

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, GreasyFingers said:

You obviously did not go through the Wyndham system in Australia during the first years. The science books alone weighed 15 kilos and we did not have backpacks, just the usual school case of those days.

 

I didn't, no. I was schooled in London in the days when we didn't need to carry 15 kilos of books. Most books we needed were kept by the teacher and handed out for the lesson, as far as I remember. But they were free, and AFAIK in Thailand families have to buy their own books so leaving them in someone else's care wouldn't be trusted.

[ubonjoe]

A off topic post meant to deflect the topic has been removed.

[kingstonkid]

5 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

ever heard about backpacks?

5555  You definitely do not know anyone with kids in a Thai school.  The backpacks are the problem.

The kids have so many books and <deleted> that they have to carry that the bags weigh almost as much as some of the kids.

 

I see a lot of the parents getting smart and buying the pull along bags they are a much better idea.

 

When my daughter went to school and I went to school in grade 1 we did not need to take our books back and forth.  We had desks that we could store them in and or tables at the back that we could pile them.

 

When you see grandma straining to carry the bag and mom not being able to you know it has gone to far.

 

Lockers are not necessary.  What is necessry is for the schools to have home room teachers lock the classrooms when they are not in use.

[Rimmer]

Troll post removed

[Nojohndoe]

While I know that the weight and volume of books that some school kids have to lug  back and forth can be beyond comfortable  it is not that they are carrying them for such long duration as to cause  spinal deformities . How much more time slumped  in any position for hours and hours  out of  school time do so many  now spend hours and hours  fixated on a mobile phone?

 

 

[pacovl46]

It’s called ankylosing spondylitis. 

[earlinclaifornia]

On 6/25/2021 at 12:20 PM, EVENKEEL said:

The heavy bags are terrible. I pay decent money at an English program school. I sent an email to the principal stating lockers for students was needed. No response. No reason to drag books around that aren't needed.

The bags are so heavy even as an adult I am shocked at how heavy my 4th grade girls is. Like you say, lockers for this books, etc. need to be made available so as to right this travesty. In the USA this solution has been in effect now for years.