SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN
Written by Writer on Sunday, October 26th, 2008
SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN
Sexual harassment and assaults are taking place in our schools and against our children, but what are we doing about it?
Bamrung Amnatcharoenrit
At a volleyball camp for girls, the players were required to stay overnight at school as part of the training. During the night, the male coach encouraged the girls to drink alcohol.
“It’s just a game,” he told them.
A PLACE FOR HEALING: A young victim of sexual abuse outside the Paveena Foundation for Women and Children.
Later that night, he took one of the girls, a 14-year-old, to his room and raped her. The entire team knew about it, but were too afraid to say anything.
After that night, the coach continued to intimidate and sexually assault the girl. The situation became the talk of the school, but still it was not reported.
Six months later, her parents received an anonymous letter telling them what was going on. They confronted the girl, and in tears she said it was true.
According to the Institute for Population and Social Research at Mahidol University, the age of victims of rape and sexual assault is as young as seven months, and as old as 105, while the perpetrators can be as young as seven.
The Pavena Foundation for Women and Children reported that between 2000 to 2007, it assisted 33,719 victims of sexual violence across the kingdom, both women and children.
“Those most at risk are children aged between eight and 12,” said foundation founder Pavena Hongsakul.
According to Thailand’s Children and Family Protection Centre, part of the Ministry of Education, “every week, at least one teacher abuses a student”.
The volleyball coach has been fired from the school. He faces seven years in prison but is currently on bail, awaiting his appeal.
But the threat of sexual harassment or assault isn’t just from teachers, but also friends.
Manee (not her real name) is 15. One night she visited a female friend’s home and decided to stay overnight.
Manee had gone to her friend’s house on her motorbike, but as it was raining heavily, she decided not to risk riding home. Her mother agreed.
At the house were three young men, aged between 18 and 19, one of whom was her friend’s boyfriend.
One of the young men took a liking to Manee and asked for her phone number. Not being attracted to the teenager, she gave him the wrong number and went to bed.
The next morning, she got on her motorbike and was heading home when she met the same three young men at a bus stop. The one who had asked for her number asked for a ride home, and she obliged. After all, he was a friend of a friend.
The young man led Manee to a wooded area, where he raped her. She didn’t tell anyone.
A few days later, on the way to school, she found the same man waiting for her. He threatened her with violence if she didn’t go with him, so she obliged.
She was raped again, this time by more than one man. They also took photographs of her naked.
Shortly after this, her teacher found the pictures posted on a website and confronted her. Manee broke down in tears and revealed what had happened.
Her rapists are being detained at a Juvenile Detention Centre.
In a study by the Institute for Population and Social Research, over the past 10 years there have been 6,638 cases of rape reported by the media in Thailand, and a further 4,612 reported cases involving sexual harassment or misconduct of one form or another.
Most disconcerting is that, over the past five years, 68 per cent of the victims have been under 18.
“And these are just the ones reported by the media,” said Assoc Prof Dr Kritaya Archavanitkul, deputy director of the Institute.
In most of these incidents, as in the two cases above, the assault or harassment goes unreported by the victims. If it wasn’t for the intervention of concerned third-parties, the victims may still be suffering in silence.
Sukamon Wipaweeponkul, head of the psychiatric unit at Phaya Thai 2 Hospital, said that sexual violence is nothing new - what is new is the rising number of reported cases. But one of the primary obstacles in apprehending sexual predators is their victims’ reluctance to report the assaults.
Why don’t they go to the police? Or tell their teachers? Or tell their parents?
“I couldn’t tell my parents,” said Manee. “My father is so strict. My parents wanted me to get the best education. I didn’t want to disappointment them.”
According to Nutthawut Buaprathum, a lawyer at the Centre for the Protection of Children’s Rights Foundation, the reason is simple and often overlooked: It’s because we, the adults, are not open to them.
“Sexual violence in schools reflects society’s lack of a mechanism to help children. It also reflects the relationship between the children and their parents or family members,” said Nutthawut. “Some victims were reportedly raped 10 times by the same perpetrator, but they felt they couldn’t tell anybody.”
Nutthawut also pinned some of the blame on the aspect of Thai culture that dictates children should respect older people, including teachers.
Incredulously, to report a teacher can be construed as disrespecting your elders. Complete obedience is a virtue hammered into the heads of Thai children from an early age. And when the perpetrator of sexual violence is one of your teachers, why would a child believe that reporting it to another teacher would help? It’s a question of trust, something that one shouldn’t expect victims of rape to do easily.
“I trusted people too much,” Manee confessed, referring to her decision to give her would-be rapist a ride home. “I should take care of myself more.”
“Schools and parents should create an environment where our children are not afraid to come to us in times of trouble,” Nutthawut said.
The first step towards such an environment is sex education in schools.
Sex education in Thailand is still a relatively new subject. However, while lessons on anatomy, reproduction and safe sex are taught, important issues such as human rights, sexual boundaries, sexual abuse and dealing with sexual predators are overlooked.
Perhaps there is more to educational reform than just providing computers and new textbooks.
Plan International, a non-governmental organisation, recently launched a global campaign called “Learn Without Fear”, aimed at curbing violence in schools, including bullying, corporal punishment and sexual violence. It is designed to create an environment of trust and safety in schools.
Plan International will work directly with 5,000 schools in 40 countries to help tackle violence.
The organisation has also set up an online community and hopes to sign up 50,000 people to help pressure the government to enact stricter laws against sexual aggression.
Bangkok Post
Sunday October 26, 2008
