Education agency to further look into kindergarten abuse case as parents demand answers

The teacher has since been sacked.
The scandal became a hot issue after parents of a kindergartner at Sarasas Witaed Ratchaphruek School said in a Facebook post that their child had been assaulted by a teacher. This led to other parents complaining that their children were also very frightened to go to school, and showed up to demand that the principal of
Sarasas Witaed Ratchaphruek School check CCTV recordings.
The recordings showed teacher Onuma Ploadprong physically assaulting the children, by either banging their heads on their desks, pushing them to the ground or twisting their ears until they screamed in pain.
Earlier on Monday, deputy police spokesperson Krisana Pattanacharoen said police have spoken to eight parents and sent their children to hospital for a thorough check up.
Meanwhile, Opec’s secretary-general Attapol Truektrong said provincial education officials have learned that Onuma is just a tutor.
He added that this case may not just involve Onuma, because other teachers did not try to stop her or try to save the injured children which he said was very irresponsible.
Attapol said Onuma will undergo further investigation to see if she has the official documentation to work at a school and if not, then the principal will be held responsible.
Separately, Krisana said apart from checking CCTV recordings of this particular class, police will also check recordings of other classes.
The spokesman added that the social development office has been contacted to provide psychiatric help to the traumatised students.
Also on Monday, scores of parents showed up at the school demanding to see CCTV recordings from other classrooms.
The school’s principal and vice principal were reportedly not at hand to greet the parents, who demanded to know what the school authorities will do to solve the problem. Some parents also threatened to pull their children out of this school.
Police officers were also present and said they too had not been given CCTV recordings to study, which left the parents worried that the school may destroy the evidence.
This subject is still a hot issue on social media, with some netizens sharing their experience of abuse in school, which proves that this problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
A recent Facebook post shared a missionary’s account some 100 years ago, showing that Thailand has a long-standing history of students being severely punished in school.