Smoking in the Massage Room

According to an article in the Bangkok Post this week, administrators at a local secondary school (grades 7-12) have decided not to protest the opening of a new massage parlour located across the street. Bangkok is riddled with massage parlours, many of them huge multi-floor complexes, all of which provide an array of sexual services in addition to back rubs.

The school's director, Sompong Polsoongnoen, said that he sees the opening of the massage venue as "an opportunity to instill morals in students." It doesn't, however, appear as if he's got any massage field trips planned as part of his agenda. Actually, if you believe everything that Sompong says, his students are the ones that need to be instilling morals in their adult educators. According to Sompong, he and the staff at Triam Udomsuksa Pattanakan Ratchadapisek School (try saying that name three times without tripping over your tongue) have "taken students out to collect garbage left by night visitors, and pointed out the aspects of a bad culture. We've done this and I can say that none of our 2,000 students smoke or use drugs."

Naturally, one is tempted to ask: Just what sort of drugs is this guy on? I mean, come on; even if you claimed that you had 200 students that didn't smoke or dabble in drugs, I'd question the accuracy of the statement. But 2,000? No way! Thailand is a very laid back country and still conservative in many ways. Schools are clean and safe. But many teenagers DO smoke and drugs ARE increasingly becoming a problem on campuses nationwide.

Meanwhile, the police chief in charge of a committee that approved the massage parlour's license, said that the school was invited to attend the license request hearing, but they refused. Maybe the director was too busy taking students out on garbage collecting rounds.