As Tough As A Teacher

[KoratCat]

Teacher in hot water for berating kids at gunpoint

RARINTHORN PETCHAROEN

Nan _ Around 300 residents of Ban Nam Liang in Nan's Thung Chang district yesterday demanded the removal of a school director they claimed threatened pupils at gunpoint. The incident happened on May 25, 10 days after the school reopened following the holidays.

Somporn Onsuwan, director of Ban Nam Liang school, found out that nine male students had tattoos on their ankles.

The students were called into his office to be given a warning, and he drew a pistol and pointed it at the head of each student, terrifying them.

''The principal told us to get rid of the tattoos. He then asked whether we wanted to know if the tattoos made us bullet-proof. He went to get his gun from a car and pointed it at our heads,'' said Kamol Homdokploy, 13, a Mathayom 2 (Grade student.

Theerawat Taokham, 13, also a Mathayom 2 student, thought it was a toy gun until he saw the real bullets.

''At first, I thought it was a toy gun. But when the principal started loading three bullets into the magazine, we were frozen with fear,'' the boy said.

The parents found out about the incident on May 31 and were upset with Mr Somporn's behaviour. They petitioned Samai Thanasri, the acting director of the provincial education zone 2 office, to have him transferred.

Mr Samai formed a fact-finding team and the findings are expected to be available this week.

Mr Somporn argued that he was joking and said the gun was a toy he seized from another student.

He said he had been the target of foul play, adding his 19-year record of working at the school was trouble-free and he had never been in conflict with any villagers.

Most teachers at the school believed Mr Somporn might have acted in a fit of rage. He meant to teach the students how to behave, although the way he did so might have been inappropriate, they said. Parent Suthep Homdokploy said warnings and punishments are acceptable, but not when pupils' lives are threatened.

The school has 15 teachers and 187 students from kindergarten to Mathayom 3

Bangkok Post June 7, 2007

[KoratCat]

Complaint against school that chained up children

Buri Ram _ A complaint has been filed against the deputy director of a school in Muang district who chained two 12-year-old students to a tree as punishment for truancy. The draconian punishment was meted out after the boys skipped a maths class late last month at a mathayom school in the district. The victimisation enraged their parents who yesterday lodged a complaint against the school's deputy director who ordered them to be chained up.

''He (the deputy director) placed two bowls of water in front of them and, in a bid to humiliate them, called other students to see what he termed the 'monsters','' said one of the boy's mothers.

The boys were chained up for about three hours before being released.

The woman asked education officials to take legal action against the deputy director for the act, which she said went against teacher ethics.

She said her son has become extremely stressed since the punishment and requires continual comforting and reassurance.

''I felt very bad,'' said the boy, whose name was withheld. ''My classmates still call me a monster.''

The deputy director, whose name was not given, admitted he chained up the two students, but argued he did not mean to physically harm or torture them.

''This was to create a psychological impact to keep the boys from skipping class again,'' he said, reasoning the boys were too wild to be dealt with using more conventional methods.

He also claimed their parents had signed an agreement with him, allowing the school to punish their sons if they broke school rules again.

However, chief of the 1st education zone for Buri Ram Surasak Srisawangrat said he had ordered the school director to investigate the case.

The school director was not present when the punishment was carried out, he said.

However, the director telephoned his deputy, instructing him to free the boys when he found out what had happened, Mr Surasak said.

Bangkok Post Jan. 14, 2008