The senseless death of a schoolteacher killed by a stray bullet fired by a suspect believed to be involved in rivalry between vocational students highlights an urgent need to address the toxic enmity between such vocational institutes.
The 45-year-old woman, who taught at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Klong Toey, was withdrawing cash from a bank's ATM when the stray bullet killed her on Saturday. Her untimely death was not a case of being at the wrong place and at the wrong time; it was a case of insane school rivalry between two of Bangkok's well-known vocational colleges.
Another victim of the shooting, who remains seriously injured, is a first-year student of the Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-Ok, Uthenthawai campus, originally known as Uthenthawai Construction School.
Although police have yet to identify the school of the two perpetrators, it is widely belived that they belong to Pathumwan Institute of Technology, an age-old rival vocational school of Uthenthawai.
The incident has revived the history of violent feuding between the two vocational schools, Uthenthawai and Pathumwan, which dates back several decades.
Over the years, agencies have introduced projects to improve relationships among students from these two institutes but without meaningful outcomes.
As an example, the Prayut government in 2016 intervened by mandating that parents of students who are engaged in violence would be held accountable and face legal action for their child's actions. The violence appeared to subside only to re-emerge again, although at a lesser frequency.
In September last year, the Pathumwan District Court sentenced 17 Uthenthawai students to a one-month suspended jail term and fined each of them 10,000 baht for engaging in a street fight in front of the National Stadium with Pathumwan students who also faced similar charges.
New ideas were also proposed to resolve the violent rivalry; one was the forced conscription of wrongdoing students. Unfortunately, the idea was dropped as it did not resolve the cause of this die-hard school rivalry, which seems to withstand the passing of time, becoming an ugly tradition.
One alumna of Uthenthawai, the well-known singer Yuenyong "Add Carabao" Opakul, blames former students or senior students for indoctrinating their junior students with the misperception about the inviolable concept of the school's honour and treating the students of Pathumwan as their perpetual foe.
Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has floated the idea of reviving civic classes in vocational schools to instil the awareness of unity, brotherhood, ethics and duty, but it remains to be seen whether this idea will be accepted.
But one missing thing between these rival schools is the lack of communication and positive interaction between their students. Extra-curricular activities such as sports events should be explored and implemented regularly to bring them together so they get to know each other.
Another idea worthy of a trial is to put the students of the two institutions together on a territorial defence course, which lasts at least three years, so that they can spend time together under harsh conditions.
Rectifying the problem is long overdue and needs to be tackled with sincerity and resolve; otherwise, more innocent lives will be lost, and the schoolteacher may not be the last victim.