Three students flee school, report older pupil abuse, spark local police search

Three primary school students in Udon Thani province fled their school premises after being physically abused by older students. They were found on the outskirts of a nearby village and later returned to the school, accompanied by their guardians and teachers.

Yesterday, Veeraphol Raksameuwong, admin of the page “Ban Dung Update,” reported that officers from the Fao Rai Patrol Police Station at Nong Khai province were notified of three children aged between 9 and 11 years old walking along the road near Fao Rai district. The villagers discovered the children and alerted the authorities who escorted them to Fao Rai Police Station. Initial inquiries revealed that the children were studying in fifth grade at a local school in the Fao Rai district.

Upon questioning, the three students informed the officers that they had run away from their school due to being beaten and abused by older ninth-grade students, resulting in their reluctance to remain at the school. Soon after, the guardians of the three children contacted the police station, expressing their intention to pick up the children and bring them back home. Moreover, a teacher from their school also called the police and informed them that the entire school and teachers were worried and looking for the missing students, who allegedly left the school while it was under quarantine due to COVID-19.

The authorities then escorted the three children back to their school, while the guardians made their way to the school to visit their children and inquire about the truth of the matter.

Last year, a 15 year old schoolboy in the northeastern province of Buriram stabbed one of his friends in the neck after being bullied and mocked for his poor family background. The incident took place on September 2, in a classroom of a school in the Pakam district of Buriram province. The teenager, known as ‘A’, attacked his friend by stabbing him in the neck and back before another friend intervened. Another classmate was accidentally hit by a chair during the chaos.