School beating

[beb]

Yes, you should approach the school director and discuss the issue. But, the school director probably is aware this is happening and allows it. If you challenge the school director's and/or teacher's authority, then you need to take the boy out of the school and enroll into a different one. If you can talk to the police and ask them to handle it anonymously, then the boy will be OK in the future at the school. But the police will not do that. Your best option is to move the boy to a different school, and tell the director and teacher staff that this type of punishment is not allowed.

I certainly don't have any inside information but I can tell you that the possibility of being sued is real and understood and feared by schools here. At least by some. There could be some that are simply crazy and want the world to burn but I would think that number is fast dwindling.

Having said that, no school director in their right mind would condone the beating of kids. Again, maybe the school director is not in their right mind, but that's a pretty big maybe.

[malt25]

Basil- it's a bit too simplistic that quote. Two wrongs maybe do not make a right and I can accept that in certain scenarios. However, when an adult beats a child to that extent ( school teacher - allegedly ) - then I'm afraid that this sentiment doesn't cut it with me. It's " bat time " and that <deleted> needs to be on the receiving end of at least 6 good swings of it !

I think there's more to this than stated in original post.

If, in fact, this was done by a teacher why are you posting it here ? You & the boy should have been at the school with the police about 5 minutes after he arrived home. Maybe to the doctor first to have him checked out & then to police station. Sure, post it on here, but a few days later when the situation has been sorted out.

If police not interested, then, maybe the base ball bat. But I'm sure if police notified same day all would be resolved by now.

Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Best of luck to the young bloke.

Cheers..... Mal.

[NoshowJones]

I don't have the answer to your question but that is disgraceful and, surely, not acceptable in any educational establishment.

To the OP. As an ex English teacher, I can say corporal punishment is illegal in Thailand, what age is the boy? Is he still in Prathom classes? You being Farang, you can do nothing about it. What about the boys father? He should report this to the school director.

I can assure you that this is not regular in Prathom classes, although I know corporal punishment is sometimes used in Mattayom classes. I have taught in both.

I hope the boys dad can do something about this and get the teacher responsible punished.

[beb]

Listen, I feel bad for you but please don't listen to the bad advice you received on this forum. Let me help you think this through a bit.

First of all, no violence, no raising of voices. You must deal with this in a civilised way.

This is a very strong allegation and it will be met with equally strong excuses and resistance by the school and teacher who's lives and livelihoods are at stake.

You believe your son but your belief will not be enough to solve the problem. You need to get the parents of as many kids as possible together to approach the school so the teacher who apparently has been doing this for years (and knows how to deflect actions from angry parents) will not be able to wriggle his way out of it this time.

Try to gather as much testimony and evidence from other parents as possible and then, together, you and the other parents approach the school headmaster. It should be made clear that this type of teaching method is not only unacceptable, but also that specific steps should be taken to reform the teacher and controls put in place so that if the teacher ever does it again, he be severely punished.

Your goal here is to show the children some adult, civilised justice and problem solving. Taking out the baseball bat as some TV cavemen suggest would do nothing more than to teach the children that you address thuggery with additional thuggery.

Be prepared for strong denial on likely the school's part (face) and teacher's part (he/she wants to stay gainfully employed).

Do not yell and scream (this is Thailand and you will just be written off as a crazy farang) do not get excited. The most threatening posture possible in this culture is ice cold calmness and talking to the point.

My kids go to Aksorn in Pattaya and lately my kids say the Thai teachers spank their hand for getting the answer wrong (despite my 9 year old saying he was correct and actually the teacher wrong). SO this strikes a chord with me and we should deal with it.

All of us concerned parents can cooperate and do some good and going down to the level of the teacher will not solve anything.

Pattaya Orgasmic,

You seem like a nice fella and your methods are interesting and probably correct - in any civilised country, where systems and controls already exist. However, we are not talking about incidental matters here. The Thais do not understand a civilised problem solving approach to dealing with problems. The best way is to avoid problems and confrontations in the first place, but this one cannot be avoided and needs to met head on, despite your diplomatic suggestions. Action needs to be action in this case.......not a fairy dance around handbags and letter writing !

Albertosez,

I'm sure you're a really nice guy too. But I honestly don't understand how anybody would think that having a physical confrontation is in any way the smart thing, much less the intelligent thing to do in this situation. I certainly can understand the impulse for a parent to lash out if they see their child harmed but that's an impulse, not rational thought.

People post here for advice from cooler heads. When supposedly cooler heads are basically calling for a cage match, well it's not really much help.

[Chang_paarp]

As I said previously, this a matter for the police.

Get grandfather to round up some of the other parents and go directly to the police and see the navy officers there. Do not waste time with the school, they will as said, try to divert any outcome that brings publicity to the school. If you really want get some results go to the police station by way of the local press (Thia or Falang but Thai will get better results) and drag them along for the circus.

That is criminal assault not corporal punishment.

[NoshowJones]

Go and see the headmaster with the photos and tell him/her that if it ever happens again the police will be called.

No. Assuming it was a teacher who did this, he/she should not get a second chance. The school director should be seen now and told to do something about it.

[NoshowJones]

If the teacher thinks he had the right to punish your nephew like this, you have the right to do the same to the teacher.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Not the OP, the boys father, and yes, he should seek retribution against the teacher in some way.

[Jimbolai]

In another culture, close to Thailand, in Vietnam, that picture would mean that the lad got a health treatment and would be thankful for getting it. When they have a pesky cold, it is a custom to use coins or metal name tags, like GI dog tags, to scrape the back, the neck or face until the skin is bleeding. Strange but true, they really believe that it has a healing effect for the whole body. I have pictures of my GF after she gave herself that treatment. I refused and she cried big tears that she missed her mother who normally does this for her. I will not show the pictures but you can look it up.

suction cups are also in use in the streets of Saigon.

How do you know it doesn't work if you never tried. No thanks, I did not.

PS you sure the op's photo shows abuse or healing?

[SanukJoeII]

Reading many opinions and half-truths (I know that doesn't exist), so need for facts:

Corporal punishment is widely practised in Thailand, although it is against the law, it's even Child Abuse for the law.

In 2003 a law was getting in force against corporal punishment. Many schools avoided this by having parents sign that they did not object against corporal punishment!

In 2005 a law was comiing in force that clearly states that any physical contact between teachers and students is forbidden! Also it was mentioned that it is impossible that contracts are made that go against the law. This 2005 law should have been the end of not only corporal punishment but also the crazy haircut fashion that leaves young girls look like mentally ill (hair no longer than the underside ear, like in mental institutions). Many teachers have a sadist part in them that let them hit students in 3 ways: 1. knock on the hands with a ruler, 2. knock on the bum with a soft stick, 3. cane with a bamboo cane. Haircut is done by the sadist teachers by taking the hair and cutting a piece off at one side, with the remark that next day the other side has to be the same, otherwise punishment.

Methods to follow: First talk with the head of the school, he should have the teacher suspended during investigation. If that does not have effect (teacher continues teaching) the only way is to go to police and file a complaint for Child Abuse. There are two possibilities: the police takes it serious, has a report made and the report sent to the prosecutor for a court case, result the teacher's license will be revoked (if that would only happen one time in each district it will send a strong signal to all teachers to better change their misconduct). Or, and unfortunately that is the majority of cases, the police laughs about it (we were also hit when in school) so nothing happens. I have that situation in my district in rural Isan, no way to stop the beating and the hair cutting, as police and headmaster plus district officials are all good friends of each other... sad but true. I have my step daughter of 12 already registered in a private school for the next years, this year will be the last in a govenment school. She is ok, as I talked with some teachers and threatened them to do the same with them as what they do to my daughter, it helped. Also the haircut is now restricted to the girls having their hair "clipped up" (with clips or bands) and that means in their time at home (75% of their time) they can wear longer hair.

I wish I would read a story about someone making it as far as the General for my part, so that a national order would go out that every teacher caught with beating or hair cutting would be suspended the first time, and license revoked if things are repeated. I like the idea of one poster to go to the school in Pattaya with the local press, taking many photos, they will be spread all over the Thai media and might finally end this barbaric behaviour of so-called educators. There are a lot of videos available on the net, just google caning, corporal punishment...

BTW more than 20 states in the USA allow corporal punishment up until today (most southern states)!!!!!

Edited for spelling

Edited July 2, 2014 by SanukJoeII

[NoshowJones]

The school principal will ''instigate an investigation''and that will be the end of it for quite a while even if you are persistent. Walking into the classroom and showing the teacher the photos, maybe standing on his foot while doing so, should be quite effective, but that's not for everyone. If someone did this to my little girl they would soon know that they were in trouble, no violence necessary. We sorted out a school bully pretty easily, but every situation is different.

Don't use violence, the teacher will know how to get you into trouble, maybe with Immigration also.

I have aiready told the OP not to get involved and leave things to the boys father.

[Pii Kate]

What a horrible thing to do to the child. The teacher is a bully. Don't drop the ball on this. Nothing is worse for the child than to feel his pain is not a concern to his parent or family. He will come to think he deserves this sort of treatment. Go to the General was mentioned. DO IT. An excellent idea that most likely will get results. I would also directly confront the teacher and it would not be beneath me to threaten (to go over his head) the teacher if any such action happened again to any child.

[NoshowJones]

Yes, you should approach the school director and discuss the issue. But, the school director probably is aware this is happening and allows it. If you challenge the school director's and/or teacher's authority, then you need to take the boy out of the school and enroll into a different one. If you can talk to the police and ask them to handle it anonymously, then the boy will be OK in the future at the school. But the police will not do that. Your best option is to move the boy to a different school, and tell the director and teacher staff that this type of punishment is not allowed.

The police will do something and handle it anonymously if -----------.

[JesseFrank]

Ludee, I don't know why you are wasting your time on this forum for 2 days already.

By now you should have filed a police report already, and at least you should do it before the wounds have healed.

I experienced a similar event, although not so severe as your case, where I had noticed that the teachers were using wooden sticks during the flag greeting.

I went there and made them an offer they couldn't refuse, because it could be heard at the other side of the town, and for the rest of the semester they didn't touch my son anymore.

At the end of the semester I removed my son from the school.

If my son would have shown a back like your nephew, I'm sure I would have been in jail at that time.

Edited July 2, 2014 by JesseFrank

[NoshowJones]

Listen, I feel bad for you but please don't listen to the bad advice you received on this forum. Let me help you think this through a bit.

First of all, no violence, no raising of voices. You must deal with this in a civilised way.

This is a very strong allegation and it will be met with equally strong excuses and resistance by the school and teacher who's lives and livelihoods are at stake.

You believe your son but your belief will not be enough to solve the problem. You need to get the parents of as many kids as possible together to approach the school so the teacher who apparently has been doing this for years (and knows how to deflect actions from angry parents) will not be able to wriggle his way out of it this time.

Try to gather as much testimony and evidence from other parents as possible and then, together, you and the other parents approach the school headmaster. It should be made clear that this type of teaching method is not only unacceptable, but also that specific steps should be taken to reform the teacher and controls put in place so that if the teacher ever does it again, he be severely punished.

Your goal here is to show the children some adult, civilised justice and problem solving. Taking out the baseball bat as some TV cavemen suggest would do nothing more than to teach the children that you address thuggery with additional thuggery.

Be prepared for strong denial on likely the school's part (face) and teacher's part (he/she wants to stay gainfully employed).

Do not yell and scream (this is Thailand and you will just be written off as a crazy farang) do not get excited. The most threatening posture possible in this culture is ice cold calmness and talking to the point.

My kids go to Aksorn in Pattaya and lately my kids say the Thai teachers spank their hand for getting the answer wrong (despite my 9 year old saying he was correct and actually the teacher wrong). SO this strikes a chord with me and we should deal with it.

All of us concerned parents can cooperate and do some good and going down to the level of the teacher will not solve anything.

I believe in addressing thuggery with additional thuggery, as long as you are 100% sure the retribution is against the right person. I am strongly in favour of giving out your own retribution if the authorities don't do it to your satisfaction.

[NoshowJones]

"If this is true, then I doubt that anything less than a good beating of this teacher would satisfy most western parents. You send your kids to school to learn and become educated socially and academically, not to be beaten and abused - by anybody. I'm ok with parents giving their own kids a clip around the ear when it's necessary, but that is reserved for parents only. This teacher needs taking for a picnic with the other fruitcake in a precious thread ( Postman Alcky ) and sorting out properly !"

So lets get this right. You would condone physical violence against women in this case?

Yes, but not by any man, only by another woman.

[Albertosez]

"If this is true, then I doubt that anything less than a good beating of this teacher would satisfy most western parents. You send your kids to school to learn and become educated socially and academically, not to be beaten and abused - by anybody. I'm ok with parents giving their own kids a clip around the ear when it's necessary, but that is reserved for parents only. This teacher needs taking for a picnic with the other fruitcake in a precious thread ( Postman Alcky ) and sorting out properly !"

So lets get this right. You would condone physical violence against women in this case?

Does it make any less right that a woman did this ?

[Krataiboy]

Corporal punishment was outlawed in Thai schools in the late 1990's, but is still widespread. Head teachers and the educational hierarchy generally know it goes on but tend to turn a blind eye. Thai culture, as we all know, is archaichly macho and beating kids still common in many households.

My son was caned (for something he didn't actually do!) and my Thai wife and I asked the school for an appointment with the headmaster to complain. A few days later, we met him and Thai male teacher who had thrashed my stepson.

Initially, my wife did the talking. She outlined our complaint and asked for an apology and an assurance of no further corporal punishment. But she clearly wasn't being taken very seriously by either party. The teacher actually grinned a couple of times when she became emotionally upset.

In the end I interrupted and handed the headmaster a copy of the law relating to corporal punishment in Thailand..His attitude changed completely - and even more so after I got my wife to say that unless we got satisfaction we would ask the police to prosecute the teacher and school authorities.

Subsequently, we received a mumbled "Sorry" from the teacher, who clearly was angrier at losing face than repentant over his behavior, and a promise from the headmaster of no further rough stuff.

As we got up to leave, I noticed a cane on a shelf under a nearby table and asked whether it was the one used to punish my stepson. When this was confirmed, I picked up the stick, brandished it in the teacher's direction and told him that he ever touched our boy again I would come to the school and publicly cane him in front of his class.

There were no reprisals (as had been widely predicted by both falang and Thai friends) either against us or our son. In my experience, school bullies - whether other people's children, or adults taking advantage of their privileged position to indulge sadistic tendencies - are all cowards at heart.

Good luck with pursuing your case.

[Albertosez]

"If this is true, then I doubt that anything less than a good beating of this teacher would satisfy most western parents. You send your kids to school to learn and become educated socially and academically, not to be beaten and abused - by anybody. I'm ok with parents giving their own kids a clip around the ear when it's necessary, but that is reserved for parents only. This teacher needs taking for a picnic with the other fruitcake in a precious thread ( Postman Alcky ) and sorting out properly !"

So lets get this right. You would condone physical violence against women in this case?

Yes, but not by any man, only by another woman.

I agree - if it is a woman then let the mothers sort her out. Would you expect that any right minded woman would do such a thing to a child ? If the answer to this is no - then she is hardly going to listen to your point of view, expressed verbally, or any letter that you may wish to send her. Whilst it is unfortunate, these type of people ( sadistic) only understand one language - so serve it to them !

[JesseFrank]

Do not yell and scream (this is Thailand and you will just be written off as a crazy farang) do not get excited. The most threatening posture possible in this culture is ice cold calmness and talking to the point.

My 20 year experience is a little different as yours, because as long as i stay calm and behaved, I will get laughed at and nothing happens because of the foreign fool standing in front of them.

But as soon as I start demolishing the interior of the shop or grab the throat of the scum, which I have both done in real life, things are moving very fast to my satisfying .

My kids go to Aksorn in Pattaya and lately my kids say the Thai teachers spank their hand for getting the answer wrong (despite my 9 year old saying he was correct and actually the teacher wrong). SO this strikes a chord with me and we should deal with it.

You will see in my post a little higher up that I have moved my kid after he had an assault experience in a local school. He goes now to Aksorn soi Korpai and indeed has complained about the same issues as you mention. So if you want to take legal steps, you can count on my support..

[ThaiFelix]

My advice is go to the police and invite the local press along too, that should get things moving.

Making a kid shit scared of getting it wrong again is not going to improve his maths, it will just make them withdrawn and want to skip school.

Waiting for the teacher at the school gates is just sinking to his level.

Very true Basil. There is that TV show in the morning, channel 3 I think, wife tells me he is an ex lawyer?, he always shows a lot of injustices like this, and he really gets the attention of the right people . Something needs to be done to try to prevent this from happening in the future to many others too.

Good luck.

[nodomino]

Are you sure it was the teachers that inflicted this ? or possibly was it other students / gang ?

It does seem to me that some investigation might be useful before assaulting someone. Sometimes the media gets the details wrong or is inveigled to pass on false information. There is always 'more' to the story.

[silent]

If that was my son, the teacher would be feeding through a intravenous tube by now.

Nice one. And you would be in a cell somewhere waiting for bail or deportation / paying a lot of money to get away with assaulting a government employee. These threads always attract a certain number of armchair hard guys. I ran a construction outfit for 35 years and I used violence only once. (I threw a wheel barrow at someone). Those guys were a tough bunch.

Excellent. Might replace "arm chair critics" with paper tigers though. Gotta admit the "feeding intravenously through a tube", does have a cool vision and ring to it. Like "make my day", or "I'd tell you, except I'd have to kill you". Where's John Wayne and Rowdy when we need them?

[ThaiFelix]

Difficult to imagine this was done in full view of the other students, but that's exactly how we were caned back in the 70s in Oz. We even had one psycho who used to get a run up - cricket style - from outside the classroom. Hurt like hell in Winter - lots of hands being rubbed feverishly the morning after a maths test and our French teacher didnt even restrict himself to caning people at the start of class - his specialty was rapping you on the knuckles with a piece of wood the mad bastard carried expressly for that purpose. Sadistic mofos, but any new teacher who didnt accept that 'discipline' was part of the curriculum was clearly seen as a lesser being. Interesting times.

Apologies to any Monty Python fans out there, but tell that to young kids today and they wont believe you.

Geez Mrworldwide, we must have gone to the same school, W.A.? . I was provided with exactly the same kind of "education" but back in the 60's. Christian Brothers college but their lay teachers were just as bad.

Hey, the teacher with the run-up bowling style, was he a "Mr Walsh" by any chance? Mr Walsh had the same style, but specialised in writing a cross on your butt with chalk and then belting the cross until it wore off completely!

Action needs to be taken over this crime. Bring the press in big time!

[atyclb]

Go and see channel 3 news, get the kids on the TV - get it brought out into the open.

That is totally out of order, the teacher must be some kind of demented retard!

as opposed to the standard retard

[Thai at Heart]

That is massively excessive aside from illegal.

I would visit the police station right now.

[techboy]

I cannot get my mind away from a response which would involve inflicting physical violence on the thing that messed up that kid like that.

[Kasset Tak]

As a teacher you should never hit your students but I can understand the teachers that loses their minds and temper with the behavior of Thai students. And parents must start take responsibility for teaching their kids to behave in a good way.

I confiscated the phone of one student after that he used it in class for calling and texting all the time and did not stop or turn it off even though I asked him. I gave the phone back in the end of the day (2 hours). The boys father came to my office and threatend me because I taken the phone from his son. And we are talking about a 18+ student!

Edited July 2, 2014 by Kasset Tak

[Albertosez]

Listen, I feel bad for you but please don't listen to the bad advice you received on this forum. Let me help you think this through a bit.

First of all, no violence, no raising of voices. You must deal with this in a civilised way.

This is a very strong allegation and it will be met with equally strong excuses and resistance by the school and teacher who's lives and livelihoods are at stake.

You believe your son but your belief will not be enough to solve the problem. You need to get the parents of as many kids as possible together to approach the school so the teacher who apparently has been doing this for years (and knows how to deflect actions from angry parents) will not be able to wriggle his way out of it this time.

Try to gather as much testimony and evidence from other parents as possible and then, together, you and the other parents approach the school headmaster. It should be made clear that this type of teaching method is not only unacceptable, but also that specific steps should be taken to reform the teacher and controls put in place so that if the teacher ever does it again, he be severely punished.

Your goal here is to show the children some adult, civilised justice and problem solving. Taking out the baseball bat as some TV cavemen suggest would do nothing more than to teach the children that you address thuggery with additional thuggery.

Be prepared for strong denial on likely the school's part (face) and teacher's part (he/she wants to stay gainfully employed).

Do not yell and scream (this is Thailand and you will just be written off as a crazy farang) do not get excited. The most threatening posture possible in this culture is ice cold calmness and talking to the point.

My kids go to Aksorn in Pattaya and lately my kids say the Thai teachers spank their hand for getting the answer wrong (despite my 9 year old saying he was correct and actually the teacher wrong). SO this strikes a chord with me and we should deal with it.

All of us concerned parents can cooperate and do some good and going down to the level of the teacher will not solve anything.

Pattaya Orgasmic,

You seem like a nice fella and your methods are interesting and probably correct - in any civilised country, where systems and controls already exist. However, we are not talking about incidental matters here. The Thais do not understand a civilised problem solving approach to dealing with problems. The best way is to avoid problems and confrontations in the first place, but this one cannot be avoided and needs to met head on, despite your diplomatic suggestions. Action needs to be action in this case.......not a fairy dance around handbags and letter writing !

Albertosez,

I'm sure you're a really nice guy too. But I honestly don't understand how anybody would think that having a physical confrontation is in any way the smart thing, much less the intelligent thing to do in this situation. I certainly can understand the impulse for a parent to lash out if they see their child harmed but that's an impulse, not rational thought.

People post here for advice from cooler heads. When supposedly cooler heads are basically calling for a cage match, well it's not really much help.

I never said it was a smart thing to do - but it's what I would want to do because I would want very quick results - if that was my child. I have friends who have been through fairly lengthy legal processes with recent injustices, one of them involving violence. They spent lots of money with lawyers taking their cases through the civil courts and after 6 months lost both their civil cases and lots of money. Maybe they were unlucky, but it wouldn't satisfy me ( as a parent ) if that was the suggested route to solve a situation where someone had physically abused my child ! Let's also not forget, looking at his injuries, this wasn't a single slap or whip....it looks like a prolonged attack from someone who has lost all control of what they were doing. this is supposed to be a teacher, someone you entrust to look after your child ? Sorry, but I don't do solicitors letters to those kind of people. Maybe if someone bumped my car or damaged my fence I would take the legal route, but not with something like this - i suspect the teacher would sit laughing themselves to sleep at night at the thought of someone pursuing them with a hand full of letters. Don't get me wrong, I am not a keyboard warrior or a hooligan, but I like to see things are right - and I don't see that " letter writing " would give me any satisfaction if I was in the fathers shoes.

[sailblue]

There is more to the story. If at all it was a teacher, there was more than a bad test result.

My kid goes to Aksorn on Teprasit and all the teachers seem very polite, and most classes seem to have two teachers, so would need to have two bad ones together.

I would go straight to the school for the answer. If they did do it, I would then go to the police.

Then maybe as you head off you will get a correction to the story.

[Globeman]

Basil- it's a bit too simplistic that quote. Two wrongs maybe do not make a right and I can accept that in certain scenarios. However, when an adult beats a child to that extent ( school teacher - allegedly ) - then I'm afraid that this sentiment doesn't cut it with me. It's " bat time " and that <deleted> needs to be on the receiving end of at least 6 good swings of it !

I see a significant number of TV denizens are showing their usual respect for rule of law. Yep, vigilantism is the solution - don't bother with legal and civil prosecution.. "I am the superhero 'ANGRY MAN' and I will mete out justice wherever I see what by my judgment is injustice... just as soon as happy hour is over."

I wonder how many of these 'tough guys' are actually physically (and psychologically) capable of laying on the beatings they so salivatingly claim they wouldn't hesitate to dish out. And how many of those could actually do the time if they were legally convicted of assault causing bodily harm? Loudmouthed tossers.