New school director, 51, under fire for ‘intimate relationship’ with schoolgirl, 14

BANGKOK: A 51-YEAR-OLD school director accused of having an inappropriate romantic relationship with a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Bua Yai district has been transferred effective immediately.

School director Nathapop Boonthongtho was transferred out of the school to an inactive post pending a disciplinary panel’s investigation. Nathapop did not show up at work this week.

If he is found guilty, he will be sacked from the civil service and also face criminal charges, Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 deputy director Supapongsa Chantharang said yesterday.

A Ban Patong Thanoen Samakkee School committee and teachers this week brought the scandal to the media’s attention by producing Line chat messages from the girl’s mobile phone as evidence. 

That evidence prompted the Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 to establish a disciplinary panel to investigate the allegation and prepare assistance for the Mathayom 2 student. 

The office’s Promotion of Educational Provision Group head, Khomkrit Mumthaisong, yesterday led panel members to visit the school to investigate the alleged three-month relationship, which reportedly started shortly after the school director took a position at the school.

The committee was expected to gather evidence and report its result to the office’s director within seven days, Supapongsa said.

A friend of the victim told the panel that the girl previously had a boyfriend in Mathayom 3, but after Nathapop took the job at the school he had made advances and had an “intimate relationship” with her. 

The friend said the school director would tell the girl to skip classes to go on trips and stay with him at a resort. 

The victim had said she was “in love” with Nathapop and he had promised to ask the girl’s family for permission to marry her on February 14, the friend said.

In another development, Paiwan Haithong, the leader of a residents’ group calling for Nathapop to be punished, filed a libel complaint against him at Bua Yai Police Station, claiming she had received a threatening phone call from him in which he had made accusations about her son. – The Nation/Asia News Network