A 15-year-old girl held nearly two months earlier this year on suspicion of insulting the royal family this morning protested outside the elite Bangkok high school after saying it had expelled her.
Thanalop “Yok” Phalanchai this morning berated staff from outside the Triam Udom Suksa campus in the Phattakarn area after announcing that she had been expelled after fleeing a meeting with administrators who refused to let her call her parents – or leave.
The 15-year-old activist said last night that the school notified her of her expulsion after she escaped the meeting, which was apparently called after she dyed her hair in violation of the dress code.
“I felt suffocated and couldn’t bear it anymore, so I asked to leave,” she said on social media. “But the teacher prohibited it. They sat and blocked all the exits, so I couldn’t find a way out. There was a window behind us and a table in front of us, so I chose to crawl under the table.”
Yok said she had brought along two friends and student leaders after being called in for an after-class discussion where she was confronted by two assistant principals, two male teachers, and two homeroom teachers.
It was unclear what exactly precipitated the meeting at the school, but it came a day after Yok dyed her hair and took to social media to say that all schools should eliminate strict rules enforcing dress codes and hairstyles. Yok said “appearance and hairstyle are not indicators of our academic performance,” and that “the problem lies in the structure of the Thai education system.”
Her comments came as the issue of student rights was reignited by a rural school siding with gender expression – within the traditional dress code.
“Why should we pay more to give up our basic freedoms and rights over our physical appearance, which we have had since birth?” she wrote.
Yok only said that one of the male teachers at yesterday’s meeting explained to her why she had been called in and “why she was not safe.” She asked to call her parents and wanted to record the conversation to inform the guardian about what she was told.
She said that she told a teacher she was not live-streaming their conversation but was open about the fact she was recording it.
She said a teacher instructed her to respect other people’s rights, which he said she was violating “by recording” them.
After the meeting, an assistant principal reportedly told Yok that her tuition would be refunded and she was no longer welcome as a student on school grounds.
Critical comments flooded Yok’s live stream this morning to side with the school and tell Yok to stay in her lane.
“Normally, I would support N’Yok. But in this case, I would like to stand with the school. Most of my friends follow the school rules. N’Yok should respect the school rules like everyone else,” one wrote.
“Every place has rules and regulations,” read another. “We want others to respect who we are, so we also have to respect other people and places, okay?”
Yok is among nearly 20 minors accused of violating Section 112 of the penal code, which punishes behavior deemed offensive to the royal family with up to 15 years in prison per offense.
Reforming or outright repealing the law was a key policy proposal of the reformist political party that won the most votes in last month’s election.
She faces prosecution in two 112 cases for her involvement in events advocating for reform of the monarchy. The first was at an Oct. 13 rally at Bangkok’s City Hall when she was 14. The second involved a speech made in February in front of the U.N. Building.
She was arrested March 28 outside the Grand Palace along with a man tackled by security forces while spray painting “No 112” on a wall. The next day, she was taken to a juvenile facility west of the capital where she remained until May 18.
Upon her release, Yok developed a severe rash on her back believed to have been caused by the unsanitary conditions at the facility. The detention center was criticized for its treatment of its detainees. They responded that it “takes care of children’s health in accordance with the measures of the Ministry of Public Health.”
The royal insult complaints, which can be made by anyone, were filed against Yok by ultraroyalist Anon Klinkaew, the head of a group called the People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.
Last month’s surprising electoral win by the Move Forward Party, which openly campaigned on a promise to reconsider the monarchy’s role in society, has been met with a backlash by old-guard social conservatives.
While the law had fallen out of favor for some time following the ascension of King Rama X, a sudden outburst of once-unthinkable calls to reform the institution saw it revived and used to prosecute many of those involved.
In 2020, thousands of students conducted protests calling for the abolition or reform of the law. Around 1,900 people, including 284 minors, have been prosecuted for crimes related to freedom of speech, according to Thai Lawyers for Human’s Rights.
That remains to be seen as the party tries to form a coalition government and win over the military-appointed senators who run the current government.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which Triam Udom campus Yok attended. It was the branch in Pattanakarn, not downtown.
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