Death at Phatthalung School: 5-Year-Old Boy Drowns in Abandoned Fish Pond

Picture courtesy of Amarin.

A five-year-old kindergarten pupil drowned after falling into an abandoned fish pond at a school in Moo 6, Nong Thong Subdistrict, Pa Bon District, prompting serious concerns from his grieving family about the school’s safety measures and teacher supervision.

The incident occurred on 27 June at a local primary school where young “Title”, a K2 pupil, had asked permission to use the toilet. The boy never returned. Teachers began searching for him, eventually discovering one of his shoes near an overgrown pond behind the school’s old toilet block. The other shoe was spotted floating in the water.

Male staff members jumped into the pond, recovered the boy’s lifeless body and rushed him to Pa Bon Hospital. Despite attempts to resuscitate him, the child was pronounced dead.

The pond, once used for raising fish, is approximately 30 metres long, 2 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. It had long been abandoned and left without any fencing or signage. Thick vegetation and water weeds obscured the water’s surface, making it appear as part of the ground, which investigators believe may have confused the young child.

A teacher’s aide who was in charge of the boy explained that she had helped him unfasten his trousers and allowed him to go ahead to the toilet, saying she would follow shortly after finishing giving instructions to the class. When she did go to check on him moments later, he had vanished.

The school dismissed students early and the boy’s relatives performed a Buddhist ceremony to call his spirit before transferring his body to Lak Sip Temple for funeral rites.

The child’s mother, overcome with grief, said through tears:

“My son must be the last. No child should die like this. Where were the safety measures? Where was the supervision?”

It has since emerged that the boy was a special needs child with a congenital heart condition. According to a cousin, he had previously undergone heart surgery and was physically weaker than his peers. He had recently transferred from a local early childhood development centre to this school. The family had reportedly informed the school of his condition and requested closer monitoring.

Ordinarily, when the boy needed to defecate, his elder sister, a primary school student at the same school, would be summoned to assist. However, as this occasion only involved urination, no one was assigned to accompany him.

Attempts to contact the school administration and the local education authority were met with a refusal to comment, with officials stating they were “not ready to provide information.”

The family is now calling for an investigation into the incident, with demands for stronger safety protocols and clear accountability for the lapse in supervision.

  Adapted by Asean Now from Amarin 2025-06-29