Police officers to teach at vocational schools

“An initiative like this has proved successful in Taiwan,” Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej said yesterday, as he emerged from a meeting with National Police chief General Priewpan Damapong.
“Perhaps, we will have border patrol police from the Naresuan Camp or commando policemen teach students about discipline, ethics and other useful subjects,” Priewpan said.
According to him, police officers were usually just in charge of searching vocational schools for hidden weapons.
“But the education minister believes we should have policemen teach them lessons instead,” he said, adding that brawls among vocational students was a social problem.
Suchart, meanwhile, said that fights among vocational students had spread to Bangkok’s adjacent provinces.
“It has affected 36 vocational schools, most of them in Samut Prakan and Bangkok’s Bang Kapi, Bang Khae and Don Muang districts,” he said, adding that some 130 students were found to be regularly involved in the violence.
“I am going to review the information over the past three years to find a solution,” he said.
Suchart added that in the past, teachers at vocational schools treated students like children, acting strictly in line with the Children Protection Act.
“So, students who did not wear their uniform were only told off for being troublemakers,” he said.

One held over wednesday brawl
Meanwhile, Huai Khwang Police Station deputy superintendent LtColonel Jarupat Thongkomon said yesterday that they had already arrested a suspect believed to be involved in Wednesday’s brawl.
The suspect, identified as 26yearold Sutas Prathumchai, is believed to have played a role in beating up and shooting at rivals.
Although the bullets did not hit anybody, Pongtorn Kiatpattananulool, 26, was badly beaten up and is still being treated in hospital.
Sutas told police that he had just helped his friends beat up Pongtorn but did not pull out a gun.
Jarupat said investigators had already identified the other suspects and were in the process of seeking arrest warrants. Sutas has been charged with physically attacking another person and attempted murder.
Pongtorn’s friend Apichart Jermpraditwong, 27, said they had been attacked possibly due to his former girlfriend. “She has continued to harass me after we broke up,” he said.