British National Dies In School Dorm

[dudeinthailand]

British national, Thomas Payne, died over the weekend. It is widely believed that he died on early Saturday morning. He was a very popular teacher at Sarasas Witaed Bangbon school located in the most southern part of Bangkok province. His family has been notified through the embassy. At this time no known cause of death is known. He was 32 years old.

He was an extremely popular teacher. Students and colleagues both admired him. He will be missed for his outgoing and loving personality. He was always willing to lend a helping hand.

Unfortunately the school has decided to attempt to cover up his death from his students and the parents of the school. Saying that it "would scare" the students from learning.

God bless you Tommy. You will be missed. I hope you now you were loved.

[bkkjames]

British national, Thomas Payne, died over the weekend. It is widely believed that he died on early Saturday morning. He was a very popular teacher at Sarasas Witaed Bangbon school located in the most southern part of Bangkok province. His family has been notified through the embassy. At this time no known cause of death is known. He was 32 years old.

He was an extremely popular teacher. Students and colleagues both admired him. He will be missed for his outgoing and loving personality. He was always willing to lend a helping hand.

Unfortunately the school has decided to attempt to cover up his death from his students and the parents of the school. Saying that it "would scare" the students from learning.

God bless you Tommy. You will be missed. I hope you now you were loved.

sad news.

[Geekfreaklover]

32 years old?

That is indeed very tragic.

[hnka]

So Sad!!...

[balo]

Very sad to hear this, I have a friend who is a teacher in the sister school, Sarasas Witaed Suksa .

They have not been informed about this tragic news.

Edited August 5, 2009 by balo

[beekaykay]

Yes very sad, my best mate was the one who found him

Edited August 5, 2009 by beekaykay

[puyaidon]

Sadly, most schools do not announce any deaths of any sort for some strange reason. At the university I taught at before, a student fell off a school tram and the only ones who knew were on the tram. We had teachers pass away and no one found out until much later. I think this is a norm rather than a particular school. It is sad about the Brit who died. And no reason given, either natural or otherwise. We can thank the forum of this web page to at least announce something.

[beekaykay]

Sadly, most schools do not announce any deaths of any sort for some strange reason. At the university I taught at before, a student fell off a school tram and the only ones who knew were on the tram. We had teachers pass away and no one found out until much later. I think this is a norm rather than a particular school. It is sad about the Brit who died. And no reason given, either natural or otherwise. We can thank the forum of this web page to at least announce something.

Think you will find that this has a lot to do with the Thai belief in the afterlife.....

[mysterybkk]

a student died pretty much right in front of my door a few months back. i know what you mean with the cover up, nobody speaks of it, and don't you dare ask management what happened. it was the fault of both the student and the management. him for running around drunk and falling to his death, and them for not training security properly to break up rowdy behavior. so far there have been zero repercussions.

@ puyaidon: are you talking about the infamous ABAC incident?

[PeaceBlondie]

My condolences.

Our best and brightest student died on a Sunday at sunset, after six weeks on a respirator. I was notified immediately by faculty and a student. Next day at morning assembly, the flag was at half mast; the national anthem was played at half speed as a funeral dirge by the school band; everybody knew. Director and teachers attended the wake; the ROTC cadet corps led the funeral procession. I cry now, 5 years later. We never forget.

[caf]

Sadly, most schools do not announce any deaths of any sort for some strange reason. At the university I taught at before, a student fell off a school tram and the only ones who knew were on the tram. We had teachers pass away and no one found out until much later. I think this is a norm rather than a particular school. It is sad about the Brit who died. And no reason given, either natural or otherwise. We can thank the forum of this web page to at least announce something.

Think you will find that this has a lot to do with the Thai belief in the afterlife.....

and yet they post photos in the newspapers and on the net for road accidents, murders, suicides etc

strange logic

[Lite Beer]

Insensitive post and the replies to it deleted.

[hearditallbefore]

Anyone have a picture? I think I new him, but not sure, I mean a school pic or normal pic.........thanks

[theholybible]

Tom was a great guy. He will be greatly missed by everyone.

He was popular with his fellow teachers, Thai staff and the students.....it is very sad that they have not all been given a chance to say goodbye.

Goodbye Tom.........Sarasas will not be the same without you.

[Scott]

My deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and students. Situations such as these are very difficult to deal with for all involved.

[balo]

Very sad .

For all of us that didnt know him , is it possible to ask why he died so suddenly.

[theholybible]

Very sad .

For all of us that didnt know him , is it possible to ask why he died so suddenly.

I think cause of death has not been officially determined....but no foul play was involved.

Unfortunately, his school has told his friends to say he has gone back to England.

[Neeranam]

How sad.

How insensitive writing "falang" in the heading.

[MiG16]

this thread is meant to be one to show respect, remember and honour the deceased.

so lets keep it that way

I dont want to see this turned into another debate about whether the term falang or farang is derogatory. its been done numerous of times, everyone has different opinions.

if his friend chooses to use the word, he clearly doesnt think its derogatory, so dont try to turn this thread into something its not. dont even go there.

condolences to friends and family.

[Scott]

Hopefully some of the people who are directly involved can fill us in with more specific details, but I have heard that his family will be coming to Thailand and that he will be cremated here.

I also heard that at the school his co-workers are not allowed to mention his death or to wear mourning colors.

My guess is that the administration is probably afraid of all the hysteria over ghosts haunting the school (he died in the school housing). In addition, I think they hold a number of events for affiliated schools (Scout Camp) on the property.

Thai people can get pretty jittery about this sort of stuff. Of course, the easiest thing to do is be discreetly honest, allow people to mourn and then call the monks in for the cleansing of the facilities of the deceased's spirit.

In my own experience, we once had a student who died in a drowning accident. Nothing was said publicly and there was no acknowledgment. I was told in passing and that's how I knew. Even his classmates never really spoke about it.

Weird. Very weird.

[PeaceBlondie]

After Sathit died and we went through the very public processes of disclosure and mourning, a Thai teacher from his village reported that he had called friends from his mobile, after dying. I said I wished he's called me. A monk later came to the campus 'to tell Sathit's ghost to leave.' We lost another student by accidental death on campus, a year before. I got the impression that death was not kept secret, either.

///Added: after a week or two, nobody mentioned Sathit, except privately.

[toptuan]

We've had at least 10 students deaths in the 6 years I've been teaching at a Thai university (probably many more). Two were a gruesome murder-suicide, another was a drowning, but most were motorbike-car accidents. In one instance, a teacher killed a student in a car-motorbike collision.

All news by word of mouth. Not a single acknowledgment by school authorities or even the media.

One sad result of this sweeping-under-rug sort of mentality is the open door it leaves for more deaths. The drowning could have been avoided by fencing off the canal in a very pedestrian-congested area. The teacher-student accident could be avoided by the school clamping down on teachers driving their huge 4x4 SUV's at breakneck speed throughout the campus streets. But in the vacuum of authority-stifled news, life (and death) continue on as usual....

Edited August 6, 2009 by toptuan

[hhgz]

"All news by word of mouth. Not a single acknowledgment by school authorities or even the media."

It's hard to see how this could be construed as "sweeping the deaths under the rug", or a "cover up".

[toptuan]

"All news by word of mouth. Not a single acknowledgment by school authorities or even the media."

It's hard to see how this could be construed as "sweeping the deaths under the rug", or a "cover up".

Think about it. For the authorities to openly acknowledge a wrongful death, they are then under pressure to do something about it. In the west, you'd have a campaign to stop kamikaze teacher drivers. You'd have fencing put around a dangerous canal with warning signs to students that the water is over their heads, etc. etc. I still thinks it's a "sweep-under-the-rug" mentality. Don't mention it, and it'll go away.

You're the one who said "cover up" which seems a more pro-active step. I wouldn't go quite that far either in my analysis.

Either way, you would have to agree that the underlying motivation is in bold, above. I've been warning our school about two potentially fatal hazards at our school for years. I finally decided that they wouldn't do anything about it until a student was electrocuted or fell through a plate glass window. Now, I doubt they'd do something about it even if that happened. First, the death wouldn't be acknowledged, and therefore, there'd be no pressure to spend the money or effort to rectify the cause of the deaths.

Edited August 6, 2009 by toptuan

[caf]

"All news by word of mouth. Not a single acknowledgment by school authorities or even the media."

It's hard to see how this could be construed as "sweeping the deaths under the rug", or a "cover up".

Think about it. For the authorities to openly acknowledge a wrongful death, they are then under pressure to do something about it. In the west, you'd have a campaign to stop kamikaze teacher drivers. You'd have fencing put around a dangerous canal with warning signs to students that the water is over their heads, etc. etc. I still thinks it's a "sweep-under-the-rug" mentality. Don't mention it, and it'll go away.

You're the one who said "cover up" which seems a more pro-active step. I wouldn't go quite that far either in my analysis.

Either way, you would have to agree that the underlying motivation is in bold, above. I've been warning our school about two potentially fatal hazards at our school for years. I finally decided that they wouldn't do anything about it until a student was electrocuted or fell through a plate glass window. Now, I doubt they'd do something about it even if that happened. First, the death wouldn't be acknowledged, and therefore, there'd be no pressure to spend the money or effort to rectify the cause of the deaths.

There are many things I like about Thailand and the West could learn from them. This is not one of them. Equally, slowly slowly may be there are some things Thailand can learn from the west.

[beerchang]

32! Cheeses!! RIP Thomas. Sounds like he was an all round good guy.

[Geekfreaklover]

Yes, far , far too young.

Must admit that I am curious to know what happened.

[pattaya_girl]

My condolences to his Family.