Thailand -- Jocular schoolboy canings: 5 video clips.
Clip 1 of 5
Duration: 15 seconds
Date: 2009
In this scene, taken in a private Roman Catholic high school in Bangkok, a lady teacher takes careful aim before administering one stroke of the cane to a student standing at the whiteboard. After it, he makes a comic act of pretending to fall to the ground in pain. There is an atmosphere of jocularity.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 2 of 5
Duration: 90 seconds
Date: c. 2006
In this clip, eight senior students are in turn given one stroke of the cane each in front of their class in Bangkok Christian College.
It has been claimed that they are being punished for failing to bring their books to class.
The mass whacking is taking place in an atmosphere of much jocularity, and was clearly not seen as a serious punishment. Nevertheless, the teacher wields his cane enthusiastically and the strokes look solid enough. Note that when one already caned boy drifts momentarily back into the camera's range he is still holding his bottom.
One student appears to be trying to argue his way out of getting his due, but the teacher gives him short shrift and the boy soon submits.
Unlike many other classroom video clips taken on mobile phones, there is nothing furtive about this film. The teacher was surely aware that he was being filmed. Both he and the students seem to be playing up to the camera.
This, together with the general air of hilarity, probably makes the event not typical. However, it seems reasonable to suppose that caning would have been accepted as a fairly standard punishment in this school at the time.
Corporal punishment is now banned in Thai schools, in theory at least. The former regulations for school CP in Thailand said that it should take place in private, not in front of other students. But it is possible that neither those rules, nor the recent ban, apply to private schools like this one, and even if they do, we may assume that nobody is going to start invoking rules and regulations for a light-hearted event such as this.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 3 of 5
Duration: 90 seconds
Date: 2009
This clip could well be from the same school as the above. Certainly the uniform is the same, but it is a different teacher. Here again, many boys are assembled at the front of the class to be dealt with. The schoolmaster has a very long cane which, if used with any enthusiasm, could be seriously punishing. However, on this occasion the atmosphere is light-hearted, and each boy gets one light tap only. The picture quality is poor. This is a newly processed version with audio and video now in sync.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 4 of 5
Duration: 40 seconds
Date: 2010
Here, two boys get one stroke of the cane each. The lady teacher, who has a cane of almost Singaporean proportions, requires each student to put his hands on the desk and bend forward for punishment. The strokes are well-aimed at the buttocks. The class is rowdy and there is some hilarity, in which the caned boys join, but the teacher remains deadpan. The first beneficiary clutches his backside as he walks back to his place.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 5 of 5
Duration: 90 seconds
Date: 2012
Three boys in turn come to the front of their disgracefully rowdy mixed class of c.15-year-olds to stand facing the whiteboard and be caned across the seat of their short trousers by their lady teacher. The first two boys get two strokes each, but the third boy gets four. We see this last punishment in a much closer view than the first two. The teacher is presumably aware of the camera roaming the classroom. The atmosphere is highly jocular.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
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