CityNews – 3rd November 2019, a post has gone viral after a photo and story of a Maejo University student was published, showing the back of a student covered in red marks and bruises, allegedly as a result of harsh hazing by second and third year students of freshmen students.
Citylife has covered the issue of hazing before here and here, as this issue has become an important talking point in recent years as social media has begun to expose the dangers of the ritual.
Since going viral, numerous parents have begun to speak up about the brutality their own children had experienced during the hazing experience.
Lalitphat Panyothi, 48 year old parent of “Folk”, one of the students who was harmed, revealed that her son was enrolled in the fisheries (or aquaculture) department, and ended up being severely beaten by his seniors. According to her, freshmen are sworn to secrecy, and not allowed to tell “outside” people about such activities, but her son couldn’t stand it anymore so he revealed the story and shared photos to his mother on 4th October 2019.
She went on to say how shocked she was at the brutality and wondered why the university allowed such activities. She took the matter to the police on 5th October 2019, but the police said she had to talk to the university first to find out who the culprits were. Following her conversation with the university, she claims no action was taken, and that was when she took the matter to social media. She has also taken her son out of the university and enrolled him elsewhere.
The university later announced that it had investigated the matter, found the guilty parties, who were senior students and might cut points for bad behaviour for some, suspended others from studying for a semester or two and may expel certain severe wrongdoing students.
The university says that it deeply regrets the incidence and will urgently bring justice to the victim.