9 Year Old Boy, Shot Dead Going to School by Public Bus, Thailand.

An innocent 9 year old boy was fatally shot on a public bus on his way to school here in Thailand. On a crowded bus in the Bangkok area, the boy whose nickname was Nong Thian was riding a bus he takes everyday with his elder brother to their school.

This picture I cannot credit anyone for. I could not find who took this saddening picture. I got this from from The Nation Newspaper.

He was shot 4 times in all by the report, twice in the neck, once in the face and shoulder. If you read the newspaper article and look at the pictures, the gun looks like it held a shotgun cartridge, not a bullet and was a single shot. I am sorry to show this picture above as it is his lifeless body and his grieving mother. This picture was on the front pages on most Thai papers today.

The shooter was a 16 year old boy and his accomplice was 19 years old. What were two young guys shooting at a fully loaded bus on a Wednesday morning? That is simple to answer.

The shooter has told police he bought the gun for 2,500 Thai baht, and wanted to shoot at rival students from another vocational college, the murderer and his accomplice were from Techno Bangkapi School.

In years gone by, some of the solutions to try and stop the fighting and deaths between vocational colleges have been: teachers follow buses and try and stop any violence if two groups look like fighting, stationing teachers at bus stops in known problem areas, stationing police at the institutions and the list goes on and on.

All have proven to be more than useless. I mean what teacher wants to step into the line of fire, take a bullet or get the shit bashed out of them, trying to stop these fools fighting. As for the police, sadly many aren’t the most motivated lot, unless it involves some extra padding to their pockets.

For such a long time, there has been a deadly rivalry in technic and vocational colleges across Thailand, especially some areas in Bangkok. I don’t want to paint all the students with the same brush, as there are millions of students attending these institutions but mostly these schools cater for drop outs, or dregs of society. I am not trying to be nasty but it is hard not to be so negative.

I have written about these problems at times, back in 2007, 2008 (links to the newspapers are now dead). The Bangkok Post is crap to link to. In the papers you will often see headlines stating another vocational student’s death from rival fighting.

Last year, over 100 of these students fought at the very popular MBK (Mah-Boon-Krong) shopping centre in Bangkok. Stunned onlookers watched as knives, machetes, knuckledusters and any other weapon you could think of were used. Some windows of shops were smashed during the fight and also a few innocent victims mistaken as students set upon.

Each time, the ministry in control of these institutions, the police and the government talk tough. They talk about doing this and that but it always seems to be piss in the wind stuff. The ministry controlling these institutions and the directors need to be dragged over broken glass and get this idiocy under control.

These people have to stop letting the verbal tripe pour out their mouths and actually put things in motion. The death of this 9yo has caused an outcry, not just in Thailand but in newspapers across the world that have picked up on the story. I cannot understand why it has taken so long and this very sad death to finally bring more media spotlights on Thailand that has been embarrassed by so many things over the past few years.

The laws must get a lot tougher with these institutions, very strict laws on the students they take in, and how they manage them and hold these places responsible for any problems these kids cause. Huge fines for the heads of the school and possible jail terms would clean these places out of the misfits and leave the kids who want to learn a trade, to do just that.

If these institutions continue to have problems, then it should be closed down by the government. A three warning system or something like that. If these places are threatened with losing their cash cow, I am sure they will have to pull their fingers out of their third eye.

Metal detectors and armed security guards, maybe a special police task force (paid by the schools, I could say the normal police but they don’t want to do this job going by their record) to monitor known problem areas, have the power to detain and search students suspected of carrying illegal weapons.

Jail terms for students that break these laws (yes, people say this isn’t a fix as they will be around career criminals and this could just put them on a road to a life in crime) as if they are sentenced to 15 or 30 days for say, carrying a knife, this experience could just give them the biggest scare of their lives, make them work with people who have been victims of senseless crimes, let them see firsthand what their stupidity can do, and I could go on and on.

Would any of this work? I have no idea, but something needs to be done. No child in the world should be shot dead going to school, trying to get an education in any country, especially one full of fat corrupt pigs, stealing off the very parents doing it so hard and just trying to get by.

It saddens me when I read about the corruption, see it firsthand and know how the everyday Thais just think it is part of everyday life, because it is so ingrained into society. I know I will never see the day in Thailand, in my lifetime, when someone with power, some real balls actually takes corruption on.

I know many are also against this idea of mine, being the death penalty. If someone is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, so 100% sure as in the person admitted the murder or the evidence is undeniable, then get rid of them as soon as possible, no matter if they are 12 or 100. They should be killed as they did to their victim. Again just my thoughts.

Whatever happens, something needs to be done now, today, not tomorrow as it is too late. Thailand doesn’t want another Nong Thian gracing foreign newspapers because of their ineptness.

My condolences and thoughts are with Nong Thain’s family in this incredibly sad time.

Brunty