A little boy found biking along a provincial highway in Si Sa Ket has been rescued from an abusive family relationship in Ubon Ratchathani after the teacher who found him intervened.
A keen-eyed teacher, Sirimon "Bow" Thongsuknok, came across the boy, Kew, aged 11, cycling alone on a highway on the night of Feb 1.
He was fleeing an abusive relationship with his father but rather than telling anyone struck out alone, covering an impressive 35km from his home in Samrong district by the time she found him. The little boy, still wearing his uniform, had left home after school that day.
He was heading for Bangkok in search of the woman he calls his mother, really the younger sister of his paternal grandmother, though he admitted later he did not know where exactly she lives.
Kew and Naphalai "Tik" Sareepan, as she is known, are close. She calls him regularly and visits him in Ubon two or three times a year.
Bow, who said she saw the boy biking along the road alone and was concerned about his welfare, called him over. The boy, who had packed a bag of clothes but taken with him just one baht in spending money, was initially reluctant to talk to her, a stranger.
"However, I told him I was a teacher and he could trust me," she told the media. Her FB about the incident the next day attracted wide coverage.
In between sobs, Kew told her that his father, who is out of work, forces him to play computer games with him at home, rarely lets him see friends, and beats him when he complains. He had been hitting Kew for more than a year, he said.
Bow coaxed from him the name of his school and his teacher. She was able to contact his teacher on FB and sent her a picture of the boy. "Oh, I recognise him -- that's my pupil!" Paveena "Oom" Dujda, his form teacher, told the media as she recounted the moment.
She arranged to have the boy's family pick him up. News images showed a clutch of officials, Bow and the boy by the side of the road as they discussed his future.
Sirimon 'Bow' Thongsuknok
In her FB post, Bow said she felt the boy's suffering when she saw him in tears and gave him a hug. She thanked his teacher for getting in touch.
Ms Naphalai, the woman Kew refers to fondly as his mum, travelled from Bangkok overnight to Kew's home to see the boy after she heard that he had fled. She said the family previously lived in Bangkok, but when Kew was three his parents broke up. Kew moved to his paternal grandmother's place in Ubon, and his father followed later.
Kew's father, she said, was out of work and lacked the means to raise the boy. She knew Kew was unhappy and had contacted schools in Bangkok willing to take him.
She had planned to pick him up and take him back to Bangkok before the next school term. But the little boy, tired of being beaten by his father, had fled home first.
District chief Chinawat Thongpreecha said the episode is a warning about the pressures faced by today's families. "The boy's parents have split up, the father hits his child," he said.
"The provincial governor has asked the district to help, and we have given them some money initially," he added.
Social development workers from the tambon went to see the boy. Media images showed extensive bruising to his backside where his father had hit him, including 20 strokes with a bamboo stick on the morning after he fled home.
"He asked Kew why he fled home. Kew spoke directly, telling his father he no longer wanted to live with him. His father laughed and told the boy to get the cane," one news report said, quoting the boy.
Reporters also spoke to his teacher at Ban Bung school, who said Kew was quiet and kept to himself. He once told a friend he would bike to see his mum in Bangkok but his friend did not believe him so did not alert anyone, she said.
Meanwhile, Kew's paternal grandmother, Buala Charoenthat, 77, admits her son, Thinnawat, 33, beats Kew often, and forces him to play computer games with him.
"If he says no he is beaten; if he goes to see friends, he is beaten. I know he wants to stay with Tik and feel sorry for him," she said.
Mr Thinnawat said he loves his son but has to discipline him. "He was raised indulgently, and as he gets older is wilful," he told a TV crew.
"I do not forbid him seeing his friends but he has to come home for lunch, and be home for the day at 5pm. If he refuses to listen I cane him."
Mr Thinnawat said he had noticed his son is good at games and would like him to compete in e-sports one day.
"I want him to be a sportsman of world stature and ask him to train at home every day," he said.
While sometimes he could be too harsh, he harboured only good intentions towards his son. However, if he wanted to move to Bangkok he was welcome, as he lacked the means to raise him properly himself.
Kew, however, says his father often keeps him trapped at home all weekend and won't let him out. Social workers plan to speak to the father, amid suggestions by some family members that he is suffering from depression and takes drugs. The saga continues.
Leading cops on merry chase
A young man who took off in the family's six-wheel truck after an argument with his father evaded police stops on a 40km trek across Chon Buri before police finally managed to collar their man.
The driver, Bandit Sormramak, 23, from Phanat Nikhom district, was forced to stop after police pursuing the vehicle blocked a road in Phan Thong district. Officers charged the vehicle and pulled him out of the cab.
However, the young man was unrepentant, telling them he was unable to get out of the cab with so many officers trying to pull him out the window. He also meekly asked police if his mother could accompany him to the station.
His mother emerged worse for wear from the Jan 29 incident. Like police, she set off in pursuit of her son, who managed to avoid the officers by slipping down side sois and ducking and weaving on the straights to stop police taking over his vehicle.
Approaching Wat Khok Khi Non, his mother, who was chasing the vehicle on foot, managed to grab the rear of the truck. However, her son ploughed on, dragging his mother along the road before she finally fell off. News video showed her gingerly picking herself up and brushing herself off.
Bandit Sormramak
The vehicle, which started its journey in Phanat Nikhom, carried on to tambon Napradu where police blocked a road. Mr Bandit tried turning the vehicle around but wasn't fast enough. Police charged his cab and after a brief melee and much shouting, managed to extract him.
Speaking to police at Wang Thong station, he said he fled in the family truck after an argument with his father. His Dad, he complained, had shown him no love since he was in his mid-teens, swore at him, and often tried to drive him from home. "You are no son of mine," he would bellow.
"Working with dad was difficult. I would be hauling wood about, and he'd hit me over the neck," Mr Bandit complained, as police, donning their family counsellor hats, probed him about the state of his relationship with his father.
"Are you still angry with Dad?' one asked.
Yes!" the young man replied.
"But he's your father!" the policeman replied.
Asked why he refused to stop for police, Mr Bandit said he wasn't interested in their roadblocks, as he only wanted to talk to his parents.
Mr Bandit's mother, "A'', said the young man was listening to music in his room when his father called. He didn't hear him, and in a temper his father threw the listening device at his son. The pair argued, and the young man took off in the truck.
A said she was worried son would hit someone so alerted police. She claimed she was not upset to be dragged along behind the vehicle.
"No mother can be angry at her own son. However, this should serve as a lesson and I will try to teach him to do better," she said.
News anchors were surprised that at 23, Bandit could behave in such a childish manner. For some, however, the incident recalled a police chase in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district on Dec 25 when Narongpol Pongsang, 24, a young man with a history of drug use, took off in his family pickup after an argument with his father.
Police, called out by the parents, pursued his Isuzu MU X over a 20km distance as Mr Narongpol collided with other vehicles on the road and was finally forced to stop when police shot out his tyre.
In the latest case, police gave Mr Bandit a drug test but say he came up clean. They have charged him with careless and dangerous driving.
Role models get stuck in
A Buri Ram police captain says he is shocked to find his wife, headmaster of a local school and pillar of the community, playing around with another man behind his back.
"A" returned home after work on Jan 27 to find his wife, "B", playing with her phone and acting furtively. He didn't recognise the device, as it was different from the one she normally uses. When he asked to take a look, she refused, and the two tussled over it.
When A finally managed to wrest it away he found B had been talking to her lover, "Kob", a headmaster at a local school. The two had been seeing each other behind his back for more than a year.
A has two children with his wife, 38. They have been together 15 years.
"I had no idea she was seeing anyone and am shocked that two pillars of the community -- role models for our young -- could resort to such a thing," A told the media.
B is headmistress of a school in Nong Ki district, while Kob, as the media called him, heads a school in Nong Hong district.
A said he found a video clip on his wife's phone of her having sex with Kob. There were also pictures of the pair holding hands and an exchange of intimate messages in which they refer to each other by pet names. At least one assignation took place at Kob's school.
One message said: "Today I was really happy to see you at school." Another, in which B talks about another great day spent in the company of her lover, she says: "In the morning, into a resort with Dad [Kob]; afternoon, off to school."
A said he doesn't know how the pair met, but said the revelation has shattered his marriage to B, as he cannot accept her duplicity. He has also vowed to pursue legal and disciplinary action against the pair.
A policeman found a picture of his wife and another man holding hands.