Teacher faces police complaint for slapping ‘saluting’ student
A student in Ubon Ratchathani’s Warin Chamrap district filed a police complaint on Thursday (August 20) saying a teacher hit her for holding up her hand in a three-finger salute.
The “Hunger Games” inspired three-finger salute is being widely used by students to symbolise discontent.
The student was escorted to the district police station by officials from a commission set up by the House of Representatives to monitor the political situation in educational institutes.
The Grade 10 student, whose name was not revealed, told police that she and her friends were holding up the three-finger salute on Tuesday morning, when suddenly their maths teacher approached her and pulled her hand down.
The teacher then asked her the meaning of the gesture, and while she was looking for it on her phone, the teacher slapped her phone away and hit her hard on the head.
After this happened, she told her parents about it before deciding to turn to the commission.
Though the teacher has not been charged, the incident has been reported to the police as evidence of danger faced by students.
The officials also told police that another Grade 11 student from the same school had been threatened with an “F” because he held his hand up in a three-finger salute.
The commission has contacted the school and the principal has promised that he will set up a commission to investigate the situation. He has also promised not to protect the guilty.