Eye-for-an-eye justice

YASOTHORN: The family of an 11-year-old boy in Muang District’s tambon Khlum-ngen turned up at the local police station to file charges against the boy’s teacher, accusing her of spraying lime juice into their son’s eyes as a form of punishment. Pensri Thongwichai said that her son, Sapasit, developed an eye infection because of mistreatment by his teacher, Ajarn Pannee Kanomjion. The family said that the teacher had noticed some first-grade students were crying, and assumed that Supasit was responsible. Without questioning him, they said, she whacked him in the back three times before picking up a lime that some children were using to play jacks. After beating the fruit with a stick to get its juices flowing, she allegedly grabbed Supasit by the hair, tilted his face upward, and squeezed spray from the citrus into both his eyes. Supasit said many students saw the whole thing and would support his story. The parents said that their darling son would never do anything to harm younger children. When a reporter arrived at the school to get Ajarn Pannee’s side of the story, she had already finished teaching and gone home. However, another Grade 5 teacher, Ajarn Sirirat Wechkama, was willing to talk about the incident. She said that Supasit was a little bully who even picked on older kids. On December 12, she said, Supasit had squeezed lime spray into the eyes of at least 10 first-grade students, getting a kick out of making them cry. When Ajarn Pannee saw his handiwork, she decided to give him a dose of his own medicine. Like most bullies, he cried hysterically when subjected to the treatment he had enjoyed dishing out to others. He then ran home, crying all the way. A school committee investigated the incident and the school principal ruled that the teacher “had not intended to use unreasonable force” when disciplining the boy.