Violence In Thai Schools

[Simmo]

Go to youtube.com

Search for "thai student fight". Pretty shocking stuff.

There's also videos of teachers caning students in prominent bangkok schools around as well.

[PeaceBlondie]

The videos look authentic, and to this pacifist, I was shocked. The two years I taught in one province, I never saw anything half as bad.

I still laugh at what I saw from the balcony of the school once. A girl of about 14 was walking with her friend, a 14-year old ladyboy. They joked or disagreed, and the "boy" kicked her with a Muay Thai back leg kick, twice. Finally the real girl kicked her friend a lot harder, as if to say "Girls can do this, obviously!!" Then they walked off together, still friends.

[Thaiboxer]

Corporal punishment is nothing new in Thai schools and from what people say, it is often used in circumstances that do not require it; like forgetting homework or something. Even with the occassional caning of a naughty student, I think there is far less violence/bullying here than in the schools I attended in the USA. There are fights every now and then which is normal in any school. Here, fights seem to happen out of nowhere; you can't see it coming. All of a sudden, the two boys just start duking it out in the middle of the class. In the West, you generally see it coming with the two kids squaring off to each other and a crowd gathering to watch.

[kenkannif]

LoL that's nothing I know of schools that had to get the old Bill in for sport's day due to violence.

And one of our teachers recently told me how kids at his school were trying to poison (with disinfectant) teachers working there.

Fun and games!!! Obviously not all schools (probably a small minority), but when they is bad, they is very, very bad!!!

[Thaiboxer]

"LoL that's nothing I know of schools that had to get the old Bill in for sport's day due to violence.

And one of our teachers recently told me how kids at his school were trying to poison (with disinfectant) teachers working there.

Fun and games!!! Obviously not all schools (probably a small minority), but when they is bad, they is very, very bad!!!"

Wow!! That sounds like an inner city school in the States! I've heard of farang teachers getting spat on and having kids square up to them which is pretty bad already. When I taught in a government school, I had Thai kids yell swear words at me behind my back but there was never any physical threat. A lot of Thai kids these days are MUCH bigger than in the past; I've had M2 kids that are bigger than me and I'm 175cm/75kg. An interesting thing is that they don't seem all that strong for their size....guess it must be all the hormone laden milk us Westerners grew up on that gives us our strength. Many of these kids are lazy turds who spend their free time playing computer games and eating KFC so the average farang could easily overpower them if push comes to shove.

On the other hand, you have these country boys who do Muay Thai...small bodies but they're VERY strong for their sizes. The good thing is, they are disciplined and very well behaved so no worries there. If you have a few boxers in your class, perhaps you can have them dish out beatings to those who annoy you...kind of like your own, private police force:)

[PeaceBlondie]

I agree that sometimes the misbehavior seems to literally pop up out of nowhere. I had two such instances, both of them quite minor and quite rare, nothing like a ghetto school in the overdeveloped countries, before the word got out that the farang could dish it out as well as the Thai teachers. Here's one:

I'm substituting for a teacher who slapped her husband (another teacher) on school grounds during a school day, with witnesses. Two bad boys in the M2 class, about 14 years old and big and strong, decided to give me, the substitute teacher, a test. Boy #1 removes his shirt and stands up in class, in the middle of the lesson! I stop teaching and start disciplining, going straight for him, shouting for him to put his shirt on. As he returns to his seat, still standing bare-chested, Boy#2 pulls down the pants of #1, quite far down, underpants and all. I keep coming, and now I'm just saying, "Out! Out of the classroom" and I'm literally shoving them out. They go, realizing too late that they've overstepped their limits. They've lost face, and they know it. No more problem after that.

And my boss agreed I did the right thing. I warned her that next time, I might drag the misbehaving kid across campus, literally pulling him all the way to the Top Director's office.

[Rhys]

Sad a one school up north.. a student was caught "shooting the rabbits" in the cao tom.

The teachers found out.. nothing was done.. as the kid was from a "RICH" Family.

Bu

[Thaiboxer]

Sounds familiar...spoiled rich kids getting away with everything. I once had an incident in a government school where a student yelled "<deleted> you" behind my back. I took the little punk to the head teacher and guess what happened; he simply said, "Oh, you shouldn't say that." The kid was made to apologize and sent back to class with a BIG smile on his face. A lot of good that did:(

[MrSnrang]

What about violence between schools?

I was at the ROTC the other day and a group of technical school kids threatened me out of nowhere saying they had ping-pong bombs and shit like that. I've never heard of the school or anything...

Crazy ######s...

[Thaiboxer]

Vocational schools (called "polytechnic" in Thai) are notorious for violent conflicts; these students often wage interschool wars just like the gansgsters in LA would do. Innocent bystanders have been injured/killed in some of these conflicts. Sometimes, the bus drivers wouldn't even stop to pick them up if they saw a lot of them at the same bus stop. If you see groups of these students it's best to avoid them. The uniforms they wear may be very different than standard university uniforms or they may be very similar. If you can't tell by the uniforms and you know a bit of Thai, you can often listen to them talking and figure out right away whether they're polytechnic students or not. They often speak more rudely than the average university guy.

[MrSnrang]

I definitely try to avoid them but it's kind of hard when they're in the same division as you and you need to go there every saturday for like five hours.

[Ijustwannateach]

I've seen these polytech groups, but I don't feel most of them are inherently threatening. Never felt threatened by any students in Thailand so far. However, I've heard of their gang wars and those are certainly a situation for anyone to avoid.

"Steven"

[ashacat]

Wow!! I have just watched those youtube videos. They are well brutal!

Pretty wierd that way that the other kids are always just watching and videoing it

[Silvercharm]

I couldn't agree more...shocking. Two things did cross my mind while watching a few clips:

1. No teacher was present, which is fairly common in a few government schools I've worked in. During these times, if the teacher were a falang who had not been present, what would the consequence be? The other way, I know the answer already.

2. The way some of those girls had fought, there must be a great future for them in the current government administration. Perhaps a bodyguard?

[Thaiboxer]

I checked the youtube.com site...didn't see the videos. Could you provide the links? I'd like to see if they compare to a fight I once witnessed while working in a government school