Teacher Secretly Filmed Beating Children
5:53am UK, Tuesday August 31, 2010
Alex Watts
A teacher has been sacked after he was secretly filmed beating children with a cane wrapped in electrical wire. <object data="/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/OBU_Player_30.swf" name="obuPlayer" id="obuPlayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="225" width="400"><object height="225" width="400">
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Somchai Limthanmaporn is accused of abusing at least 40 pupils at a Catholic boarding school in northeastern Thailand. A pupil secretly filmed the abuse on a mobile phone, and it caused uproar when it was broadcast on Thai television.
Nongkran Prathumtri, an administrator at St Mary's School in Nakhon Ratchasima province, confirmed the art teacher had been fired. In the footage, Somchai is seen delivering baseball-like swings on the childrens' back-sides, and leaves at least one of his victims in tears.
Pictures of scarred buttocks were widely shown in the Thai media. Somchai is said to have carried out the punishment on students who failed to tidy their rooms. "He must be responsible for his wrongdoing," Nongkran told TNN television news.
"There will be no protection from the school." Thailand's Education Ministry bans teachers from using force against children, but corporal punishment is not unusual in the country. The police are deciding whether to take action against the teacher.
