American Teacher Arrested in Bangkok

[Guest mauRICE]

It appears that Thailand continues to attract America's finest to her shores and esteemed institutions of learning in particular. As if the Thai education system is not screwed up enough as it is, without the 'help' of foreigners. I don't know how Thai schools can hire teachers to teach minors without a thorough background check as is required by law. And this was one of the top schools in BKK, indeed, the country - I believe they have several former and current ministers and members of the judiciary among their alumni. This Karr fellow lived in a sex tourist squalor, had been convicted of five child sex-related offences and was in violation of a court order prohibiting him from places where children congregated.

 

In the absence of alternative employment, 'teachers' like Karr will continue to be drawn to the porous teaching pofession in Thailand. I guess no one has told them of the huge market in cheeseburgers and fancy cocktails.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060818/ap_on_...jonbenet_ramsey

 

Questions loom in JonBenet case

By CATHERINE TSAI and JON SARCHE, Associated Press Writers

 

For a moment, it seemed the decade-old mystery surrounding the slaying of a child beauty queen had been solved. But authorities Thursday cautioned against rushing to judge the schoolteacher who made a stunning confession that he killed JonBenet Ramsey.

 

For now, the only public evidence against John Mark Karr is his own words. And questions have already been raised about the details of his story, including whether he drugged the 6-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying.

 

Those questions led some to wonder whether Karr was the answer to the long-unsolved slaying or a disturbed wannabe trying to insert himself into a high-profile case.

 

"We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy, quoting the little girl's father. "Do not jump to conclusions, do not rush to judgment, do not speculate. Let the justice system take its course."

 

Paraded before a raucous crush of reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, the sullen Karr said that he loved JonBenet and was with her when she died but that her death was an accident. And while vague on the details

[Gaybutton]

Interestingly enough, the following news items were published today:

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BANGKOK, Aug 18 (TNA)

 

Authorities concerned are believed to soon set a common standard for all local schools in recruiting teachers, including those of foreign origins, following a recent case in which an American teacher was arrested for an alleged murder of a six-year-old girl in the United States 10 years ago.

 

Deputy Secretary General to the Prime Minister Jakrapob Penkair said here Friday that he would meet secretary of the education minister next week to discuss standardized qualifications of all teachers in Thailand and criteria on teacher recruitments.

 

"All teachers in Thailand must have the same career standard, no matter what nationalities they are. We must now be serious about that," noted Mr. Jakrapob, who is also secretary of Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.

 

Mr. Surakiart, among other tasks, supervises the Ministry of Education.

 

"I'll discuss with the education minister's secretary on qualifications of teachers and tutors in Thailand, particularly those work for international schools, as well as criteria for screening their backgrounds and issuing work permits for them," he told journalists.

 

Mr. Jakrapob's remarks followed Wednesday's arrest of John Mark Karr, 41, who had worked as a teacher of some international schools in Thailand.

 

The middle-aged American was arrested by the Thai Immigration Police Bureau in a downtown Bangkok apartment Wednesday afternoon following a request by US security officials on August 11.

 

According to Thai Immigration Police Bureau Commissioner Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsriskul, the American authorities had informed Thailand that Mr. Karr had fled the US to hide, first in Malaysia, and then in Thailand.

 

As the latest development, a court in Boulder, Colorado issued arrest warrants for the suspect on August 16 on charges of abduction and murder.

 

The arrested suspect confessed to strangling to death the then six-year-old 'beauty queen', Jon Benet Ramsey, in her home in the US state of Colorado on December 26, 1996.

 

The suspect said that he initially wanted to kidnap the young girl for ransom, but his demand was not met; so he strangled the kidnapped girl.

 

Mr. Karr left Penang, Malaysia, and entered Thailand on June 6 this year.

 

The immigration bureau chief said that he had ordered Mr. Karr's visa to be revoked, and that the man, found not to have committed any wrongdoing in Thailand, would be then extradited for trial in the US.

 

There have been thousands of foreigners working for local schools in Thailand, particularly international and language schools, a number of whom entered the kingdom as tourists with no work permits as professional teachers, according to Mr. Jakrapob.

 

(TNA)--E002

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from THE NATION:

 

Suspect Was Employed by Prestigious Schools

 

Published on August 19, 2006

 

Education Officials Concede that Process of Checking Qualifications has Sometimes Taken too Long

 

Various authorities yesterday expressed concern that John Mark Karr - a suspect in the 1996 murder of an American child beauty queen - had managed to find teaching jobs in Bangkok.

 

At the time of his arrest on Wednesday, he had just been given employment by an international school in the Sathorn district.

 

Before that he was allowed a trial period at two of the country's most prestigious schools - the boys-only Bangkok Christian College and the girls-only St Joseph Convent School.

 

The Education Ministry's permanent secretary Khunying Kasama Varawarn na Ayutthaya yesterday said she would have a meeting with the International Schools Association of Thailand next week to tighten recruitment of foreign teachers.

 

She admitted that the ministry had allowed international schools to recruit teachers before an entire check of their qualifications had been completed.

 

"We relaxed the rules after many international schools complained that the whole process took too long," Kasama said.

 

She said the Office of Private Education Promotion Commission did general checks on whether applicants have the educational credentials that match the requirements. "The office has contacted foreign universities to verify overseas degrees submitted by applicants."

 

The office has also cooperated with special-branch police and the National Intelligence Agency to check the history of applicants.

 

"Normally we receive a response from the special-branch police within three weeks but the overseas institutions have taken longer to respond. When international schools started complaining, we relaxed the rule. Recruitment can be completed first, and if there is any problem we can take action later," Kasama said.

 

So far, she said, there had never been any problems.

 

"Generally, persons with criminal records won't be able to pass through immigration checkpoints," she said, but in the wake of Karr's arrest, Kasama planned to ask international schools not to hire any foreign teachers before their qualifications check had been completed.

 

Anusorn Thaidecha, who heads the Office of Private Education Promotion Commission, added that he would ask immigration police and the Foreign Affairs Ministry to be stricter about granting entries or visas to foreigners.

 

PM's deputy secretary general Jakrapob Penkair, who is assigned to oversee education matters, said there had in the past been many sexual-abuse accusations against teachers at some international schools.

 

"They have sex with minors - girls and boys - and they have been arrested," Jakrapob said.

 

He said all parties must join in preventing undesirable foreigners from getting close to students in Thailand. He added that he was going to raise the issue with the Education Ministry, teacher organisations, parents and international schools.

 

In a related development, caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said there were relatively few cases of crimes committed by foreigners in Thailand, given the fact that up to 12 million foreign visitors flocked to the country each year. He added that Thai authorities had worked closely with other countries in watching out for people who had been blacklisted.

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from the BANGKOK POST:

 

Screening of Alien Teachers to be Tougher

 

JonBenet Ramsey Case Arrest Prompts Rethink

 

POST REPORTERS

 

The Education Ministry next week will discuss with the International Schools Association how to toughen the screening of foreigners who apply for teaching jobs following the detention of a suspect in a high-profile murder, says education permanent secretary Kasama Varavarn. The move follows the arrest of John Karr, an American school teacher alleged to have murdered child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.

 

Karr had worked as an English teacher at a school in Sathon district before leaving the job about two weeks ago.

 

Currently, schools need to check only the qualifications of foreign applicants and are required to refer them to the Office of the Private Education Commission which then does the cross-checking with overseas universities where the foreign applicants graduated.

 

The agency will also ask Special Branch police and the National Intelligence Agency to investigate the backgrounds and history of the applicants.

 

Once they have been cleared, the Office of Private Education will give their employment the go-ahead.

 

However, after the arrest of Karr, schools will be instructed to deal directly with Special Branch police in examining the foreign applicants' backgrounds, Khunying Kasama said.

 

Anusorn Thaidecha, director of the Office of the Private Education Commission, said he will ask the Immigration Office and the Foreign Ministry to tighten the process of issuing visas to foreign nationals and will request blacklists of dangerous people to check.

 

Jakkrapob Penkair, deputy secretary to the prime minister in charge of education, said a lot of foreigners holding tourist visas prefer to apply to become school teachers in Thailand. They make money out of teaching English as a sideline to pay for expenses during their stay in Thailand, he said.

 

Immigration chief Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said international schools can check the backgrounds of foreigners applying for teaching jobs themselves by searching the Internet for the names of suspects in child sexual abuse cases provided by the US.

 

Pol Lt-Gen Suwat also ordered two policemen to stay with Karr in prison to prevent him committing suicide.

 

Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng said the international school in Sathon district should not be faulted for accepting Karr as a teacher as it had had no in-depth information of the man.

 

Panicha Tulwattana, a personnel officer at Bangkok Christian College, said Karr had taught lower primary students for a month before he was asked to resign. He looked suspicious and was always too strict with his students. A teacher said Karr behaved abnormally in class. He punished students unable to finish in-class assignments by forbidding them to go to the toilet.

 

 

[Guest wowpow]

Activist wants better child sex controls

Bangkok Post

 

"Bangkok (dpa) - The ability of the alleged killer of toddler beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey to roam the world teaching young children should be a "shocking wake-up" to the world, Carmen Madrinan, executive director, of the Ecpat network against the sexual exploitation of children, said Friday. John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old American, had recently taught at three schools in Thailand for brief periods, said Thai investigators. After fleeing charges in California of possessing child pornography Karr appears to have fled the United States to lead a peripatetic life as a schoolteacher and private tutor.

 

"I'm appalled that he was able to travel the world going from one group of young girls to another. There was no check on his activities at all. No system of international alerts or anything," said Madrinan, who heads the non-government organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat).

 

She complained that governments act quickly when it is a question of international terrorism or financial fraud, but not when the welfare of children is at stake.

Karr posted his resume on internet sites in the US for teachers seeking work where he claimed he taught children from "high-profile families" at prestigious institutions around the US.

 

In December 2001 he failed to appear at a Sonoma, California, court on charges of possessing child pornography. He appears to have fled overseas and not returned to the United States.

 

His various resumes subsequently list teaching jobs in Asia, Europe and Latin America. He claims to have taught English to 6-12 year olds in Seoul, worked as a volunteer teacher in the Netherlands and to have been a private tutor in Germany. He also lists Honduras and Costa Rica as places where he held teaching positions.

 

Karr appears to have followed the classic "career path" of some committed to the pursuit of children, said the Bangkok-based Madrinan.

 

"There is no check on him so he is able to build up a semi-respectable resume that may provide him with even more opportunities to indulge in his obsession with children," Madrinan said. Although there has been much talk about cracking down on child abuse there is in practice no system for sending out international alerts when a known abuser travels to another country, she added.

 

The demand for native-language English teachers in a world of globalised commerce has provided an easy, no-questions-asked, way for adults to live and work in poorer countries where children may be more vulnerable than at home, she said.

 

The director of Thailand's immigration police, General Suwat Tumrongsiskul, said this week that greater efforts would be made to remove dangerous foreigners, including checks on hundreds of foreign teachers. "We won't put up with this. We don't want these people here," he said.

 

Yet without a proper database of offenders, child rights groups doubt that much can or will be done by the authorities. "Right now schools and parents must simply stay alert and watch out for strange behaviour in a teacher and requests for inappropriate intimacy," said a Scandinavian diplomat in Bangkok who requested anonymity.

 

Karr himself appears to have acquired a reputation for being odd and for upsetting pupils, which is why at least one Thai school quickly sacked him, the diplomat said."

[Gaybutton]

BANGKOK (TNA) Aug 20

 

Thai authorities Sunday evening deported an American suspected of killing six-year-old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey to the United States, five days after he was apprehended in Bangkok in a high profile criminal case which raises questions as to whether he really is the killer.

 

John Mark Karr, 41, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the slaying of six-year-old JonBenet, who was found strangled and beaten to death in the basement of her family's Colorado home on the day after Christmas 1996.

 

The school teacher was escorted by Thai police officers on his way from the Immigration Detention Center where he had been jailed to Don Muang International Airport.

 

Pol. Lt-Gen. Suwat Thamrongsrisakul, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said Karr was ready to fight charges in the United States.

 

The confessed killer, wearing a dark maroon dress shirt and black necktie, was accompanied by three US immigration officials on board Thai Airways flight 794 which departed Bangkok just after 8 p.m. (1300 GMT) to Los Angeles.

 

US authorities earlier issued an arrest warrant on charges of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of a child.

 

Karr was expelled from Thailand because he is regarded as an undesirable person although he was not charged with any crime here.

 

(TNA)-E001