Thai town struggles with sudden loss of so many of its young
UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) — Paweenuch Supholwong sits on her mother’s lap and fidgets with her pigtails as her mother tells the remarkable story of how the 3-year-old wisp of a girl survived Thailand’s worst mass killing — the only child to emerge unscathed from a day care after a former police officer massacred preschoolers while they napped.
Two dozen children were among the 36 people shot and slashed to death in an attack that shattered the serenity of the rural township of Uthai Sawan, robbing the small farming community of much of its youngest generation in the blink of an eye.
Paweenuch was deeply asleep and covered by a blanket on the floor when the attacker burst through the front door and killed 22 of her classmates who lay around her — apparently missing her because he thought she was already dead, her mother Panomplai Srithong said. Another child survived with serious injuries and remains hospitalized.
As the community has come together to share its grief at the scene of the attack and its Buddhist temples, people have also flocked to Paweenuch, tying dozens of white, yellow and red “soul strings” to her wrists in the hope it will help her also spiritually survive the horror, in the belief that when someone suffers such a tragedy, they lose part of their soul.
“It is to bring the spirit back into her body,” Panomplai explained, holding her daughter warmly. “It’s like the spirit had left the body and it is being called back.”
Uthai Sawan’s 6,500 people are spread across a dozen villages, living in homes scattered among the sugar cane fields and rice paddies that many of them farm. The township in northeastern Thailand was named for two smaller communities merged together administratively, with Uthai meaning “rising sun” and Sawan meaning “heaven” or “happiness” in Sanskrit.
Ninety-two of the township’s preschool-aged children attended the public day care center, which is next to the government’s administrative offices and across from a sugar cane field. But flooding from seasonal monsoon rains, a mechanical failure that kept the center’s school bus from working and other factors kept many away on Thursday when the gunman attacked.
The township has about 100 more preschool-aged children who either go to private care centers or stay at home, said Nanticha Panchom, the teacher who runs the day care.
