OPINION

Rehabilitate bullies

Re: "Parents slam school bullying response", (BP, Oct 12).

I fully agree with the parents of the 10-year-old autistic girl who was bullied at a Phayao school. The parents plan to charge the eight older girls who pulled their daughter's hair until she cried out. They also kicked her and put their feet on her neck and face.

Bullying is a major epidemic in Thai schools. The Department of Mental Health reports that 600,000 students are bullied here each year, the second-highest rate globally.

The Phayao bullies should be sentenced to community service, working with autistic youth, learning about how they're harming their victims and how to repair the damage, until they have in-depth knowledge of bullying and autism. Then, each bully should address the morning assembly of 10 Phayao schools, showing the two clips of their actions, before telling how they severely harmed the helpless victim and how she's helping to make amends. A Department of Mental Health child psychologist should answer questions and evaluate each presentation. All the costs of each talk, including a per diem for the doctor, should be paid for by the bully.

Khun Thiwa, the victim's mother, alleges that school director Nanthapol Fusrikul tried to sweep the incident under the carpet by giving her 4,000 baht and telling others that she and the bullies had agreed that the matter was settled, which she alleges was not true. If the Ministry of Education finds that her charges are valid, it should severely discipline Khun Nanthapol for not seeking to protect his charges against other bullies.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) must work urgently with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to prevent bullying in our schools. Let this case awaken us to what must be done by the MOE, MOPH, and, most importantly, students and their parents to cleanse us of such despicable behaviour.

Re: "Bus driver faces probe for 'deserting passengers'", (Online, Oct 15).

A detailed investigation is necessary for all concerned parties including the person who posted those images of the incident on Facebook because the facts were very difficult to understand.

Of course, it was sensational to see a mother and her children sitting and crying on the street at midnight with their belongings. The person who took those images might have listened to their story to find out what actually happened. But if he/she just wanted to post unusual images to stir up society, it was a very irresponsible act.

The commentary by Adam Minter, "Future lies with electric two-wheelers", in the Bangkok Post on Oct 15 reads: "Cleaning up the region's air means reducing emissions from two-wheelers".

It's only one half of the story. Once you have driven an electric vehicle ride back home, you need to plug it into an electric socket to charge the batteries. Electricity in this region is generated by mainly burning fossil fuels. So you just transfer the polluting emissions from vehicle tail pipes to power plant chimneys.

The proper way out is to promote clean and reliable electricity generation. As per the existing technology, nuclear power plants are the only way out. Forget solar, wind and hydro because they're unreliable.

Re: "No comfort in Thai jails", (PostBag, Oct 16).

Eric cites Amnesty International saying it costs the state more money to execute people (in the US). As usual he cherry picks what they actually say and, as he already told us he is a member of Amnesty International, his bias shows. According to AI's website, the costs are those related to court proceedings, not the cost of execution. My argument claims the cost of execution is minimal compared to keeping a convict in prison for life.

So thank you, Eric, but please face up to the fact you are wrong.

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