Sarasas school teacher charged with assault for allegedly abusing students

The Nonthaburi teacher, who allegedly beat and mistreated kindergarten students, faces charges of physical assault and violating the Child Protection Act. The charges follow reports of abuse after classroom surveillance camera footage from the Sarasas Witaed Ratchaphruek School spread on the internet. Videos show a teacher, identified as Ornuma “Khru Jum” Plodprong, pushing a child to the ground, dragging another across the room and repeatedly hitting the kindergarten students.

Your comments…

• School administrators must be investigated.

• About time. This kind of abuse is the norm in Thai schools and it’s about time they did something about it.

• How about the other 3 adults who were in that room when it happens . NONE of them went forward to help that poor kid.

• Many expat teachers I came across when my daughter was still at school were ‘illegal’ & while they should accept blame, the schools which charge for expensive expat teaching should be held accountable.

Police say more charges for violating the Teachers Act could follow. They say 8 parents are also planning on pressing separate charges. Following the reports of alleged abuse, the Office of the Private Education Commission, or OPEC, set up a committee to investigate all of the 42 Sarasas private schools around Thailand.

Khru Jum, along with staff who allegedly witnessed the abuse, were fired. OPEC teamed up with the Department of Mental Health to send psychiatrists to the school to evaluate children.

Other video footage from the Sarasas school in Nonthaburi, a suburb in Bangkok, shows a male teacher grabbing a student by the arm. The teacher was identified as a 25 year old Filipino man named Marvin.

The video has sparked an online backlash and immigration officials went to the teacher’s house to check his paperwork and also checked more than 70 other foreign teachers at the school. Immigration officials have now reported that the Filipino teacher is not legal to teach in Thailand, is only on a tourist visa and down’t have a work permit.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post