The teacher, who remains unnamed since the incident came to light last Friday, has been temporarily charged under Section 295 of the Criminal Code, Capt Surachart Thongyai of the Wichit police confirmed to The Phuket News today (Nov 10).
Section 295 stipulates that whoever commits an act, causing injury to the other person in body or mind is said to commit bodily harm, and shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding two years or fined not exceeding B4,000, or both.
“I am still investigating the complaint, but this case will be finished and sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office within one month,” Capt Surachart said.
“She [the teacher] admitted that she harmed this boy, but her action is not like the complaint reported in the news,” Capt Surachart said..
“She told me that she didn’t order the boy’s classmates to harm him, and she didn’t hit the boy’s face with her foot,” he said.
However, Capt Surachart declined to explain how the teacher came to harm the boy, who needed stitches over his right eye and was suffering blurred vision from the force of the blow to this head.
The female teacher involved in the incident has been transferred to an administrative position while the incident is being investigated.
Pongsathorn Chanponto, Director of Wichit Songkram School, and social workers from the Phuket Provincial Office of Social Development and Human Security met the boy’s grandmother last Friday (Nov 6) to discuss the incident, which came to the public’s attention only after the national Pavena Foundation for Children and Women reported the incident directly to Wichit Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabodi.
The grandmother of the boy subsequently presented the child at Wichit Police Station last Thursday (Nov 5), when she alleged that the teacher had kicked the boy in the face, and allowed his classmates to hurt him.
The grandmother also alleged that the teacher offered B5,000 to settle the matter, an offer the grandmother said she refused.
Last Friday, the grandmother in tears told School Director Pongsathorn and the social workers, “I have been patient many times. My grandson said that other classmates knew about it, and I don’t want another student to face the same situation. Children can be unruly, but the teacher has to deal in a better way.”
Mr Pongsathorn expressed his sympathies to the grandmother. “I am sad about this case. At this time, the teacher has been suspended and is no longer working [physically] at the school. She is now performing administrative duties until the investigation has been completed,” he said.
“The investigation is ongoing to find out the truth. The police insist that the prosecution will be based on the facts, so that the victim can rely on the police to do what they do best,” Mr Pongsathorn told the grandmother.
One social worker present for the discussion confirmed, “Social workers will take care of the mental health of this boy and other students in his class to make sure that their mental well-being improves.”