Pattaya School

[haggis66]

Thailand never stops amazing me in many ways. My wife was given the number 1337 which i can only describe as being the citizens advice bureau same as we have in the UK. Very very heplful indeed. They have advised us to go ahead and file a police report and go to the education administration place on Monday with the report which we were going to do already. Ask for the school ''paper'' which is required when moving schools. This school has already been reported for stalling and not willing to give the parents the ''paper'' too easily (fact)i even got a story that they asked one parent for 35k before they would hand it over. 1337 also advised us that they would help obtain the paper if we have any problems.

My wife has contacted an alternative school this morning and they have spaces available, so we'll go and see them on Monday to avoid any delays in my daughter attending school. There is several friends at this alternative school so hoping my daughter can settle in easily and get this behind her ASAP. For my wife and i it wont be finished until something is done regarding the LB hitting with a stick and the school in question taking more of a serious approach for the safety and welfare of the childern in their care.

Just waiting for my wife to return from the police station.

[pattayaq]

Hello!

I am terribly sorry for the "whacking" of your daughter by a ladyboy. I'd suggest you do not look too far but attend the Regent's International School. Great education, no ladyboys, and most importantly; no whacking.

Cheers,

Pattayaq

[haggis66]

Somtampet,

Other parents have asked if we need support, some said that they are going to leave too but we wanted to get this sorted as much as as possible with the written correspondence and the talk with the school the morning after. Nothing for three days until we met with the owner who seems in our eyes not to be taking it serious and putting the childs safety first. We can take care of our own situation and really don't want to be a spokes person for their kids. As much as we care for the safety of all kids its up to the individual parent to stand up and to this unacceptable behavour then the school might take the safety of the kids more seriously.

Look if it was a tap on the back of her neck so what!. Although i wouldnt be happy with stick hitting i would simply tell the teacher to slap her hand, leg or bum no big deal. But i can assure you it must have been a pretty big whack which is why we are so angry and not forgettig the school's blindness of the severity it could have caused. A bit hypathetical but if my daughter had turned around and got it in the face then what?. When talking to one of the other students parent her daughter made the noise ''pweng'' to imitate the noise the stick in question made and the other kids straight away asked my daughter if it was ''geab''.

[haggis66]

Pattayaq,

Wish i could afford it!!

[somtampet]

Pattayaq,

Wish i could afford it!!

[/quote

Good luck any way,and the troll post is to be forgotten,or he is one of those very boastful sort,which is even worse

[haggis66]

A rough translation from my wife after returning from the police station ......if she had reported it earlier with the mark still visible then they could have made it a biger issue/investigation. Now we can and have filed a complaint and have been told that the police can now only fine the LB 500bht. We have the police report to take to the education people and will persue this further in a legal and formal way as this in our opinion is how to proceed.

[BSJ]

I used to get hit over the back of the head semi-regular when in primary school. Got the strap too. All it did was make me hate teachers more and more. To this day I still think most of them are a waste of space.

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

I think you will find there are a handful of Thai teachers at most government schools who use the stick. I know at one school I worked, one of the teachers was nicknamed "Stickman". The really bad thing about the stick is that it impedes the teaching of conversation in English classes. Students are scared of making mistakes, even if they have an NES as a teacher. It's a terrible method of teaching, and I wish the MOE and police dealt with it as a serious problem, rather than accepting it.

[smedly]

is it not possible to withdraw your child from this one class and if enough parents do the same then there would be no point in this LB remaining as a teacher at the school, surely this can be arranged....insist on it, even contact the parents of other children in the class, quite disturbing really

[tgw]

While I understand the legal reason, the story without the name of the school is useless.

yep... but I can see why the mods are afraid of the legal implications, especially since they aren't legal experts.

To be safe, the forum would have to check that the OP's story is true as told, or they might be exposed to a lawsuit for denigration or defamation. Similarly to French law, Thai Law makes the editor (i.e. the website owner or its chief editor) responsible for what is published on a forum, and this Law has precedence on Freedom of Speech. In USA, UK, Germany and Switzerland (and most anglo-saxon countries) Freedom of Speech is valued higher, and the responsibility lays on the poster.

To come back to the story, I can't quite follow the OP regarding the reasons for pushing the matter further.

No damage was caused to the girls. There has been an apology.

Just have the school gently sack the "dance teacher" (regardless if ladyboy or not, that detail is irrelevant), and that's it.

What more do you want? Financial compensation for a slight whack? Revenge? A fine prison for the ladyboy who happened to have a honest job? It was just a question of inadequacy. What to expect from a person that hasn't been properly trained and who probably experienced the stick herself?

Rather question the school for employing unqualified teachers.

I'm not sure that pulling the matter into broad daylight will ease things.

I have a feeling that the OP could have achieved more if the matter had been kept reasonably quiet.

Edited May 28, 2010 by tgw

[gk10002000]

While I understand the legal reason, the story without the name of the school is useless.

I suggest you contact the original poster via a Private message.

[haggis66]

yep... but I can see why the mods are afraid of the legal implications, especially since they aren't legal experts.

To be safe, the forum would have to check that the OP's story is true as told, or they might be exposed to a lawsuit for denigration or defamation. Similarly to French law, Thai Law makes the editor (i.e. the website owner or its chief editor) responsible for what is published on a forum, and this Law has precedence on Freedom of Speech. In USA, UK, Germany and Switzerland (and most anglo-saxon countries) Freedom of Speech is valued higher, and the responsibility lays on the poster.

We now have a police report for assult as its ILLEGAL to whack a child with a stick believe it or not in Thailand. As i mentioned i wish we done it while she still had the mark on her but we have followed the advice from 1337 (think its city hall) and others to get the police report. I would post it here but cannot.

To come back to the story, I can't quite follow the OP regarding the reasons for pushing the matter further.

No damage was caused to the girls i hope your joking. There has been an apology. My daughter is shitting herself to go to the class and the school response is to have my daughter attend the class with the same teacher but sit in the corner until she can trust the teacher. Sorry an apology doesn't work for us.

Just have the school gently sack the "dance teacher" (regardless if ladyboy or not, that detail is irrelevant), and that's it. We have asked for this as our first option when wanting to clear this up quickly with the school. Sorry i don't know the teachers name thats why i use LB

What more do you want?I dont want it to happen again. If a teacher can hit 6 year olds this hard and scare the living daylights out of the kids then i dont want my daughter or the teacher in question there anymore. Financial compensation for a slight whack? We are only looking for our school fees to be returned (50k for i week at school?) and not any other financial compensation from the school. Have you read the post - slight whack - certainly not Revenge? NO the word is justice! A fine prison for the ladyboy who happened to have a honest job? yes and we just happened to have an honest daughter being whacked for doing very little wrong. It was just a question of inadequacy. What to expect from a person that hasn't been properly trained and who probably experienced the stick herself? Properly trained or not i don't sent my daughter to a school for her safety to be in question and certainly not to have her fear going there.

Rather question the school for employing unqualified teachers. Have done but to no avail.

I'm not sure that pulling the matter into broad daylight will ease things. The outcome is not acceptable with the schools response to the matter. No it will not ease things for us but my main objective is for my daughters safety and welfare first and secondly taking it into ''broad daylight'' is for other parents to take something from this as it's not the first time nor will be the last time this type of thing happens. Some readers may not know that there is help out there e.g 1337, police (i would advise to go there straight away and not hope that the school can sort the problem out amicably like we did), the education administration etc etc. If it was revenge i would have done something i know i would have lived to regret and proved nothing.

I have a feeling that the OP could have achieved more if the matter had been kept reasonably quiet. We tried honestly to keep it between us and the school but achieved nothing

Thanks for your view on this and hope i have cleared up some points for you to understand my reasoning for going public and sorry for mucking your post up with the red text.

This could all be over on Monday if the school is willing to give over my daughters school paper and returns the term fees. We have been advised that if the fees are not returned then we can take it further on 2 fronts one being the fees and the other for as you mentioned further compensation against the school for what has happened. We really don't want to go that route and have been told that it will take time (lots of time) but with the evidence we have it is a sure thing just not a sure quick thing.

I regret i do have going public is that i do feel for all other teachers at the school who do have an honest job and work very hard for what can only be described as poor wages.

Edited May 29, 2010 by haggis66

[haggis66]

Got the mess hopefully over with today.

My daughter is now inrolled in a new school and from what i've seen so far it's far superior to her old one. Thats not meant at getting back at the old school for the incident it means that the new school has superior facilities and i also got the run down from one of their English teachers which also put me at ease.

My daughters old school has agreed to refund the term fees and hand over the school paper required when moving schools. Therefor no need to have the LB charged or meet with the people at the MOE (ministry of education) or lawyer as we are pleased to have this over with and to get on with leading a hassle free life.

The 1337 number we contacted last week (city hall) informed us that they had already sent a letter to the school in regards to the incident. Maybe thats why we were treated so nicely today?.

It's good to know that there is help out there for anyone who might find themself in similar type of bother.

Thanks for the replies.

[haggis66]

Sorry for opening this post again but a further warning !!!11

As per my original thought on Monday the school owner after saying that the school fees would be returned today only offered to return 15k from our total fees of just under 50k. We had to queue to get in the school office as the farang before us was shouting at the owner regarding some issues with his 2 daughters at the school and finally left the office shouting that he would be back on monday to get the school fees back for his 2 daughters. Shouting is not my thing but everyone is different but from the look of the guy i would not like to be in their shoes.

We then went to the MOE (ministry of education) and to cut a long story short they cannot really help as the school is NOT a government school and we were told that many parents have been to see them before regarding this school its antics and the owner. You would think it would ring alarm bells with the MOE and they could do something?

If the owner thinks she can get away with letting our daughter get beaten with a stick in school and then what i regard as stealing our money then she's wrong.

Not sure where i go from here but let the saga continue .........

[witold]

It's interesting to read all the replies in this thread. I guess it reflects the fact that people come from different backgrounds.

Corporal punishment has been part of the educational system in many countries for a very long time. People turned out fine over the years. Growing up not long ago some of my teachers used a ruler to keep kids in line. (In Eastern Europe.) This was par for the course in the US in the 60s, etc... You daughter won't die from a little red mark, but she will do whatever it is the teacher wants her to do! Don't worry, your kid won't be scarred for life.

I think you are making a big deal out of nothing.

That said, I can understand why you don't like it, and if you don't, feel free to switch your daughter to another school, or change classes. If it is in fact illegal to do this in Thailand, why don't you just point this out to school administration and to MOE? One of these options makes a lot more sense than your preferred choice of trying to get the teacher fired - what is the sense or rationale in that?

Edited June 4, 2010 by witold

[haggis66]

Show me where corporal is still part of the education system!!

It IS illegal and it has been pointed out to the administrators and the MOE. They can keep their LB teacher but for most countries if an unqualified teacher gets fined for assulting a child they should not be allowed to work in ANY school. Let me come and hit you with a stick and see how long it takes for you to forget it.

It is actually a blessing in disguise as the new school is far superior than the old one but i believe in justice and wanted to do what was right.

We have been told that there is still complaints and legal papers after 3 years on a certain table in a certain office that cannot be moved ahead in a legal way against the school in question and thats not only from parents but from teachers too. We have been advised not to persue this any further as we would only be wasting our time and money.

Okay let this school beat the kids and steal your money .............. the end.

[thescot]

I think you made a good move and looks like better for your daughters future too.

Strong rumour has it that the school has financial problems and i would think it very possible too with ever increasing lack of pupils there.

Good luck

[Heng]

Can someone PM me the name of the school in private? Hopefully it's not where Heng Jr. is in attendance.