A Bangkok school is under scrutiny after a teacher reportedly confiscated a student's mobile phone and demanded 10,000 baht for its return. The case gained attention on May 14 via Facebook, despite occurring on April 20. The school, teacher, and student's identities remain undisclosed.

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The student, originally from Narathiwat, admitted using his phone in class, contrary to school rules. After the teacher confiscated the phone, the student attempted to retrieve it to send home, but faced demands for payment. His uncle's attempt to negotiate a lower payment was rejected, leading the student's mother to withdraw him from school.

The family reported the demand to police, considering it akin to theft. The incident sparked social media criticism, questioning the teacher’s intentions. The school’s director intervened, committing to return the phone, while the Ministry of Education promised to ensure fairness for the student.

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  Adapted by ASEAN Now · The Thaiger · 15 May 2026

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Obviously a silly thing for the teacher to do, and asking for it... but many Thai teachers at that level have no bounds to their arrogance and foolishness.

However, many researchers and academics are reversing opinion on whether having more and more technology in the classroom is a benefit or not, and are clearly coming to the conclusion that having more = a dumbing down of results and learning because the tech negates the need to actually learn. This is confirmed through falling results and competency in ability to produce in situations where they cannot use their phones/tablets/AI.

So many student are simply farming out learning and decision-making to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok etc. They basically think that they don't need to learn anymore and if they get homework/assignments, then just copy and paste it and run it through an AI... hence why schools in the West are starting to ban phones in class, too much of a distraction.

The last two generations validate this point as they are the first generations ever that are less capable, rich, confident, and interactive than any generation before them... never been like this before. So what has changed? Well, the internet, AI, social media, isolation, lack of communication skills etc. and it has made them isolated, scared of interaction, and all sorts. Only going to get worse and remember that film "Idiocracy"? On the way.

7 minutes ago, Sir Dude said:

Obviously a silly thing for the teacher to do, and asking for it... but many Thai teachers at that level have no bounds to their arrogance and foolishness.

However, many researchers and academics are reversing opinion on whether having more and more technology in the classroom is a benefit or not, and are clearly coming to the conclusion that having more = a dumbing down of results and learning because the tech negates the need to actually learn. This is confirmed through falling results and competency in ability to produce in situations where they cannot use their phones/tablets/AI.

So many student are simply farming out learning and decision-making to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok etc. They basically think that they don't need to learn anymore and if they get homework/assignments, then just copy and paste it and run it through an AI... hence why schools in the West are starting to ban phones in class, too much of a distraction.

The last two generations validate this point as they are the first generations ever that are less capable, rich, confident, and interactive than any generation before them... never been like this before. So what has changed? Well, the internet, AI, social media, isolation, lack of communication skills etc. and it has made them isolated, scared of interaction, and all sorts. Only going to get worse and remember that film "Idiocracy"? On the way.

Quite a few superficial posters here do much the same. Dependent on AI for their 'wisdom'.

Edited May 15May 15 by IsmeUno

10 minutes ago, Sir Dude said:

Obviously a silly thing for the teacher to do, and asking for it... but many Thai teachers at that level have no bounds to their arrogance and foolishness.

However, many researchers and academics are reversing opinion on whether having more and more technology in the classroom is a benefit or not, and are clearly coming to the conclusion that having more = a dumbing down of results and learning because the tech negates the need to actually learn. This is confirmed through falling results and competency in ability to produce in situations where they cannot use their phones/tablets/AI.

So many student are simply farming out learning and decision-making to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok etc. They basically think that they don't need to learn anymore and if they get homework/assignments, then just copy and paste it and run it through an AI... hence why schools in the West are starting to ban phones in class, too much of a distraction.

The last two generations validate this point as they are the first generations ever that are less capable, rich, confident, and interactive than any generation before them... never been like this before. So what has changed? Well, the internet, AI, social media, isolation, lack of communication skills etc. and it has made them isolated, scared of interaction, and all sorts. Only going to get worse and remember that film "Idiocracy"? On the way.

Its quite simple IMO, but enforcement takes effort.

At my son’s school, there is a very strict no-phone policy, which essentially means:

• Students are never seen using a phone during the school day.

• If a student needs to use their phone, it must be with permission.

• At the end of the day, students are free to use their phones to contact parents, arrange transport, etc.

In practice, this means phones stay in school bags throughout the day.

Students earn commendations for good behaviour and receive concerns for negative behaviour, all of which is tracked online.

As for tech use, it would be foolish to ignore it.

Students are actively encouraged to engage with technology and, more recently, AI. Homework is set with clear guidance on whether AI may be used to assist with that particular assignment or not.

My son (not yet a teenager !) has even scanned his exercise books into AI. During one AI-approved homework task, I watched him ask AI for a summary on a specific subject, then copy the answers out by hand. Ironically, it still took him hours because he hadn’t realised he should prompt the AI to produce a concise summary with a word limit. He’ll learn - and that’s part of the process.

So while AI and technology can provide shortcuts, that doesn’t mean they should be avoided altogether.

My son also told me he had seen some classmates using their phones during tests. I explained that this ultimately does them no favours, because in real examinations all technology is removed and those very same students would quickly find themselves unstuck.

Even online interviews and assessments are now designed to detect AI assistance. They monitor eye movement, tab switching, typing patterns, response speed, and other behavioural indicators to identify potential AI involvement - and the systems are becoming remarkably accurate.

I have one very strict rule with my son when it comes to technology - whether it’s a VR headset, Nintendo Switch, iPad, or phone: there are no endless rules.

There’s a line we’ve never really had to discuss, but we both know it exists. Kids generally know the difference between right and wrong; it doesn’t need to be over-explained. If that line gets crossed, the device is removed. It’s as simple as that.

He has to learn to self-regulate, manage his own time, and make sensible decisions.

I don’t mind if he spends three hours on his iPad one day, because the next day he might spend hours making paper aeroplanes, building parachutes, or doing something completely different.

Too many restrictions often create an unnecessary sense of yearning or obsession around technology.

It is obvious that the student broke the rules by using the phone.That the teacher confiscated it is no problem, However asking for 10k is not done. But it seems in the whole story that the student is protected and the teacher only is the culprit. The student however broke the rules in the start...

I wonder how widespread this little racket is...

I've been retired for several years, but ar my school the children were required to hand in their phones to the class teacher at the start of the day, for collection at the end of the day.

The result was an amazing collection of old phones...

To impound the phone during school hours is ok but to request 10,000 baht for it's return is black mail. Once again a Thai kid with no parental guidance. I know it's many years ago but if that was me I would've been grounded for one month from my after school activities.

Hey Mr. Richard Smith237... what you say has value and truth to it, but I bet you send your kids to somewhere that is not the run of the mill school for most folks. Also, when you get to university, I reckon what I said is the norm, not the exception.

However, teachers and lecturers of higher-level education are going to have to make their courses AI proof, and that means testing in a controlled environment that they have nothing other than a pencil in order to give an answer to see if they learned anything (the days of homeworks and self-study assignments are gone)... otherwise they collaborate, pay someone to do it for them, take the path of least resistance etc. etc.. you know how it is here and I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new.

Trouble is for education is that how do you actually grade a students real competence and give them the score they deserve with all the cheating/corner cutting going on? Very hard, and most teachers/lecturers will not only cite what I said, but also bring up the educational system issues that refuse to tell the truth and perpetuates incompetence into the system... because they fail to grade useless students as they should be, which would make them try harder.

The Thai educational system is so long overdue for reform, its ridiculous, and out prioritizes anything else... including immigration, military, and the police amongst others.

5 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

It is obvious that the student broke the rules by using the phone.That the teacher confiscated it is no problem, However asking for 10k is not done. But it seems in the whole story that the student is protected and the teacher only is the culprit. The student however broke the rules in the start...

The student simply broke a school rule, the teacher broke the law by depriving the student of his phone and attempting to extort B10,000 baht from him.

9 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

His uncle's attempt to negotiate a lower payment

Negotiate with a teacher? Every kid needs an Uncle Buck.

9 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

It is obvious that the student broke the rules by using the phone.That the teacher confiscated it is no problem, However asking for 10k is not done. But it seems in the whole story that the student is protected and the teacher only is the culprit. The student however broke the rules in the start...

Asking for 10K to get the phone back is extortion, get a grip.

I’m not sure what really happened that precipitated this.. but.. my thoughts are ..

Taking of one’s property - outside of established legal framework- is almost ways going to end badly.. So, there’s that.

I also think it’s fair and right for teachers, through established (and legal) school policies and practices, to have learning environments that are conducive to student success.

I do think there’s both times and appropriate spaces where “tech” should be available to students during their day. I don’t think it should be a “no, not at all”, nor do I think it should be “yes, without limits”… There are times where it’s both useful and beneficial to the learning objective to have and use tech.. but there’s also times where it’s not.. The trick is of course to know which is which and have processes in place to ensure it’s available when appropriate and not, when it’s isn’t.

What mostly concerns me in this report is how and why did B10,000 come into the picture? Sure, the temporary “confiscation” of the device may have occurred- but that shouldn’t be for any length of time not absolutely necessary, and its return should be immediately thereafter.

Due to issues like liability for loss/damage etc, Im not a personal fan of schools “confiscating” students property when it’s possession or use by said student at that time, violates established rules. I would be a bigger fan of requiring a student to store it away themselves in an inaccessible manner/location and/or remove it from the school campus.

The reality is that, speaking to Thailand specifically, schools and by extension, teachers are explicitly and largely implicitly, given fairly wide latitude by society and law, when it comes to control, management and yes, discipline of students and their actions while on school grounds.

On the surface, given the realities of how schools operate, the numbers that are involved (ie larger classes with one or two teachers in a room) both schools and teachers need to have the necessary tools to be able to create and maintain an orderly learning environment .. and yes, that does include discipline.

But this where I think both teachers/schools need to “tread lightly” and be in synch with what each other can do and will do. I don’t think discipline should be exclusively one parties domain… Teachers and schools are NOT parents.. however, schools ARE where kids developed a lot of their formative thinking and behaviors.. So I think parents need to be in the drivers seat if you will, and schools/teachers follow that up so there’s a consistent message about what’s acceptable and not both outside and inside of the classroom, at home or out.

One can discuss this behavior of the teacher for a long time here, but the fact is that his behavior must have criminal consequences: namely for embezzlement of an object of value and extortion.
In addition, the school should dismiss the teacher without notice.

7 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Asking for 10K to get the phone back is extortion, get a grip.

I wrote that asking 10k the teacher should not have done.. Maybe read carefully... But I stated that the student will be protected, but he broke the rules by using his phone while it was forbidden. The teacher has the right to confiscate it, but NOT to ask money for it

Confiscating the phone is fine until the end of the day. Demanding any amount of money for its return is just downright terrible.

20 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

It is obvious that the student broke the rules by using the phone.That the teacher confiscated it is no problem, However asking for 10k is not done. But it seems in the whole story that the student is protected and the teacher only is the culprit. The student however broke the rules in the start...

The student did a kid like thing and broke a school rule. We all did that in some way shape or form. He got punished by having it confiscated. I expect both these things are laid out in the school rule book.

For the teacher to then demand 10k for the phones return, presumably for his/her personal gain (article isn’t clear on that), is extortion and I would put money on it NOT being in the school rules.

So yeah, the student is “protected” because they did a minor rule infringement and was punished for it, the teacher committed a sackable offence as far as I am concerned and deserves everything they get.

20 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Its quite simple IMO, but enforcement takes effort.

At my son’s school, there is a very strict no-phone policy, which essentially means:

• Students are never seen using a phone during the school day.

• If a student needs to use their phone, it must be with permission.

• At the end of the day, students are free to use their phones to contact parents, arrange transport, etc.

In practice, this means phones stay in school bags throughout the day.

Students earn commendations for good behaviour and receive concerns for negative behaviour, all of which is tracked online.

As for tech use, it would be foolish to ignore it.

Students are actively encouraged to engage with technology and, more recently, AI. Homework is set with clear guidance on whether AI may be used to assist with that particular assignment or not.

My son (not yet a teenager !) has even scanned his exercise books into AI. During one AI-approved homework task, I watched him ask AI for a summary on a specific subject, then copy the answers out by hand. Ironically, it still took him hours because he hadn’t realised he should prompt the AI to produce a concise summary with a word limit. He’ll learn - and that’s part of the process.

So while AI and technology can provide shortcuts, that doesn’t mean they should be avoided altogether.

My son also told me he had seen some classmates using their phones during tests. I explained that this ultimately does them no favours, because in real examinations all technology is removed and those very same students would quickly find themselves unstuck.

Even online interviews and assessments are now designed to detect AI assistance. They monitor eye movement, tab switching, typing patterns, response speed, and other behavioural indicators to identify potential AI involvement - and the systems are becoming remarkably accurate.

I have one very strict rule with my son when it comes to technology - whether it’s a VR headset, Nintendo Switch, iPad, or phone: there are no endless rules.

There’s a line we’ve never really had to discuss, but we both know it exists. Kids generally know the difference between right and wrong; it doesn’t need to be over-explained. If that line gets crossed, the device is removed. It’s as simple as that.

He has to learn to self-regulate, manage his own time, and make sensible decisions.

I don’t mind if he spends three hours on his iPad one day, because the next day he might spend hours making paper aeroplanes, building parachutes, or doing something completely different.

Too many restrictions often create an unnecessary sense of yearning or obsession around technology.

Poor kids, Richard, never have such opportunities. Thai 'education' is designed to fail due to its hierarchical structure which relies on rote memorisation. This is particularly apparent with languages.

In your school, are kids allowed to use their tech at lunch or are they banned to encourage human interaction and...ya know, bullying!

Ideally, the kids would put their phones in a teacher's lock box to be collected at end-of-day.

It's unfortunate the AI genie can't be put back in Pandora's box. (Mixed metaphor, I know.)

21 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

Obviously a silly thing for the teacher to do, and asking for it... but many Thai teachers at that level have no bounds to their arrogance and foolishness.

However, many researchers and academics are reversing opinion on whether having more and more technology in the classroom is a benefit or not, and are clearly coming to the conclusion that having more = a dumbing down of results and learning because the tech negates the need to actually learn. This is confirmed through falling results and competency in ability to produce in situations where they cannot use their phones/tablets/AI.

So many student are simply farming out learning and decision-making to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok etc. They basically think that they don't need to learn anymore and if they get homework/assignments, then just copy and paste it and run it through an AI... hence why schools in the West are starting to ban phones in class, too much of a distraction.

The last two generations validate this point as they are the first generations ever that are less capable, rich, confident, and interactive than any generation before them... never been like this before. So what has changed? Well, the internet, AI, social media, isolation, lack of communication skills etc. and it has made them isolated, scared of interaction, and all sorts. Only going to get worse and remember that film "Idiocracy"? On the way.

Irrelevant. Taking someone's property with the intent to permanently deprive them of is theft. Pure and simple.

4 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

I wrote that asking 10k the teacher should not have done.. Maybe read carefully... But I stated that the student will be protected, but he broke the rules by using his phone while it was forbidden. The teacher has the right to confiscate it, but NOT to ask money for it

He can hold it temporally but needs to give it back when school finishes that day.

59 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Poor kids, Richard, never have such opportunities. Thai 'education' is designed to fail due to its hierarchical structure which relies on rote memorisation. This is particularly apparent with languages.

Of course, different standards of schools will produce very different outcomes. In my experience, Thai government schools are among the worst when it comes to rote learning.

There is also an unhealthy imbalance of power in some cases. Teachers are given excessive authority, and for a minority of them it feeds an ego that allows them to behave as they please, often with little fear of accountability or consequence.

59 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

In your school, are kids allowed to use their tech at lunch or are they banned to encourage human interaction and...ya know, bullying!

No phone use is allowed throughout the school day unless it is specifically part of a lesson.

That said, the school does use an app to monitor and log homework, so students will need access to their phones for that purpose.

Thankfully, I haven’t heard of any bullying issues so far.

The reality, of course, is that students will still sneak the occasional message here and there, and I’m sure most teachers are aware of it and quietly let minor things slide. But the overall expectation is clear: phones should not be seen or openly used during the day.

59 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Ideally, the kids would put their phones in a teacher's lock box to be collected at end-of-day.

There’s also the issue of accountability. What happens when a phone goes missing?

If parents choose to give their child a $1,000 phone, it shouldn’t become the school’s or a teacher’s responsibility to manage, store, or be held accountable for it. At that point, you start creating liability issues that schools understandably want to avoid.

59 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

It's unfortunate the AI genie can't be put back in Pandora's box. (Mixed metaphor, I know.)

It natural progression - schools / teachers have to keep up.

Edited May 16May 16 by richard_smith237