Thai ministry orders investigation into school director accused of abusing 11 pupils, despite his resignation
Thailand’s Ministry of Education has ordered a serious disciplinary investigation into a school director in Kanchanaburi province accused of sexually abusing 11 schoolgirls, saying he will be dismissed and stripped of his pension if the allegations are proven, despite having already submitted his resignation.
A group of parents from Kanchanaburi travelled to the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for Women and Children in Bangkok on the morning of 9 July to lodge a complaint with the foundation’s president, Pavena Hongsakul.
According to the complaint, 11 girls aged between 11 and 15, all pupils at a school in the province, were indecently assaulted by the school’s director. The girls are in Prathom 5 to Mathayom 3, roughly the equivalent of Grade 5 to Grade 9.
Parents allege that some of the girls were abused almost daily, beginning when they were in Prathom 3, at around eight or nine years old, amounting to hundreds of incidents in total.
The complaint states that the director would summon pupils to the teachers’ residence on the school grounds on the pretext of cutting their hair, having them do household chores, or trying on clothes. He is alleged to have threatened to withdraw their scholarships if they told anyone.
The director submitted a letter of resignation on 3 July. Parents said they feared this was an attempt to escape accountability and vowed to pursue the case to its conclusion.
Deputy Education Minister Akaranan Kannakittinan, who heads the ministry’s Centre for the Protection of Rights and Liberties, attended the foundation alongside Arunee Jiramahasan, assistant secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission, and Trin Kandokmai, who directs the commission’s rights protection centre.
Akaranan said he had instructed the Office of the Basic Education Commission and the local education service area office to establish a serious disciplinary investigation committee immediately, notwithstanding the director’s resignation and the fact that he is due to retire in two months.
If the allegations are substantiated, he said, the maximum penalty would apply, meaning dismissal from government service and the loss of all pension entitlements.
He added that disciplinary investigations would also be opened into every teacher and member of staff who knew of the alleged abuse but failed to act.
On assistance to the victims, Akaranan said the ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Ministry of Public Health to provide psychologists and a multidisciplinary team for long-term psychological support.
In the criminal case, the ministry and the education commission will provide full legal support to the families. Akaranan noted that the alleged offences occurred on separate occasions and would be counted as separate charges.
He said the ministry would not allow anyone who commits such offences to remain within the education system.
The accused has not been named and is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court.
The story Headteacher accused of sexually abusing 11 pupils in Kanchanaburi as seen on Thaiger News.
