A woman filed a complaint with Khlong Luang police on Monday morning, accusing a female teacher of beating her seven-year-old son, a Prathom Suksa 1 (Grade 1) student at Sang-am Withaya School in tambon Khlong Song of Khlong Luang district.
Boonsueb Khanthong, 50, said this happened on Friday when her son left his classroom before time. The teacher allegedly hit him 99 times with a wooden stick wrapped in adhesive tape.
She took the boy to the police station to show the bruises on his back.
The woman also said she took her son to the school this morning, but the director and the teacher were not there.
Mrs Boonsueb claimed the alleged offender offered her 50,000 baht to settle the case, but she did not accept it because she wanted her charged for assaulting her son.
This is a disturbing story and if the allegations are proved to be true, then the offender should face severe punishment. It is assault, simple as that.
As a teacher in England for 34 years I saw great changes in the disciplining of children. Of course all corporal punishment is now banned much to the despair of a large number of the population.
My view is it has its place but incidents like this much earlier in England are the root cause of the “do-gooders” being able to make such sweeping changes. There was far too much corporal punishment meted out in England by sadistic teachers who had no genuine concern for their pupils.
This caused things to turn full circle and Thailand needs to be careful it doesn’t end up going down the same route. Corporal punishment should be used sparingly for only serious offences otherwise it becomes meaningless.
Ruling children by fear is not the way to go and I hope this lady,if found guilty, is made an example of.
(Source: Bangkok Post)