Thailand -- Mass schoolboy caning

In this 90-second clip, eight senior students are in turn given one stroke of the cane each in front of their class in Bangkok Christian College.

It is now being said that the reason for the punishment was that the boys failed to bring their books to class, and not, as stated earlier, because their haircuts were inappropriate.

The mass whacking is taking place in an atmosphere of much jocularity, and was clearly not seen as a serious punishment. Nevertheless, the teacher wields his cane enthusiastically and the strokes look solid enough. Note that when one already caned boy drifts momentarily back into the camera's range he is still holding his bottom.

One student appears to be trying to argue his way out of getting his due, but the teacher gives him short shrift and the boy soon submits.

Unlike other classroom video clips taken on mobile phones, there is nothing furtive about this film. The teacher was surely aware that he was being filmed. Both he and the students seem to be playing up to the camera.

This, together with the general air of hilarity, probably makes the event not typical. However, it seems reasonable to suppose that caning must have been accepted as a fairly standard punishment in this school at the time.

And when was that time? I think it must be from within the last few years because videophones that produce this kind of picture quality have not been around very long. The fashionably long baggy shorts also suggest a recent date. When I was in Bangkok only about five years ago, boys' school uniform short trousers were a little bit shorter and tighter than this, I think.

CP has now been banned in Thai schools, in theory at least. The former regulations for school CP in Thailand said that it should take place in private, not in front of other students. But it is possible that neither those rules, nor the recent ban, apply to private school such as this, and even if they do in theory, we may assume that nobody is going to start invoking rules and regulations for a light-hearted event such as this.

HERE IS THE CLIP: