A female teacher at a public middle school in central Chonburi province is facing disciplinary action after she confiscated the bras of three students as “punishment” for violating the school’s dress code.
Under questioning by education officials yesterday, Danita Taechasiri, a teacher at Surasak Witthayakhom School, admitted to forcing three of her Mathayom 2 students (equivalent to the eighth grade) to go braless on Monday because they broke the rules by not wearing a camisole under their school uniform for modesty — since Thai school uniform shirts are made of thin, nearly see-through fabric.
Yep. This teacher forced three minors to go braless … for not covering up enough.
The investigation — which ended with a teary public apology from the teacher — followed growing social media outrage over the past few days, as one of the students anonymously shared her story via the female-oriented Facebook page “Gstrong.”
“A teacher forced a girl to hand off her bra and returned it to her after school. Look at the state of Thai education,” the Monday post reads.
The student’s Facebook status said that she had to wear her school backpack on the front in order to prevent her breasts from showing that day, according to Matichon.
The school district supervisor, Somsak Thongniam, yesterday convened a meeting with the teacher, principal, the three students, and their guardians at a police station.
One of the students, who was not named, told officials: “The teacher checked everybody’s shirts. My two friends and I weren’t wearing camisoles under the uniform. She asked us to come to her office and then told us to take our shirts off.”
“We did so … We took off our shirts, but the teacher said, ‘No, you have to take off your bra,’ saying that she would confiscate our bras and return them at the end of the day,” she added.
As if they hadn’t been shamed enough, the teacher allegedly even mocked them afterwards.
“The teacher even told us, ‘You girls will love your backpacks today.”
In a confrontation with the students’ guardians, filmed by local news Facebook page “E Jan,” one of the mothers said her daughter came home crying after the sickening punishment.
Danita’s apology, however, was a bit on the half-assed side, admitting wrong but simultaneously chewing out the parents for not making sure their daughters were covered up.
“Have I told you that students have to wear camisoles? Have I said that the parents must ensure that their children follow the dress code? But I admit that I’m in the wrong. I apologize,” she said.
At one point in the discussion, Danita started crying and said she meant well for the girls.
“The things that I did … I wanted the best for my students, but maybe the punishment was too severe. I love all the of children like my own,” she said through tears. Oof.
The school has appointed a committee to investigate the incident and will determine what disciplinary punishment should be meted out.
But is an in-house punishment really enough for violating the rights of three minors and forcing them to take their underwear off? Multiple commenters on social media suggested Danita should be fired, or even charged for sexual assault.
Others suggested that the teachers actions condoned and emboldened as “slut-shaming” culture, in which young girls who go without a camisole are accused of wanting to “show off” their bras.
Plenty of Thai women were reminded of the undergarment issues from their own school days, with one user commenting that her teacher forced students to buy a new neutral-colored bra from the nearby market if they wore a colorful bra to school.
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