WIROJ Samruan, director of Samsen Wittayalai School in Bangkok, yesterday admitted being the person seen in a video clip that was posted recently on social media by a school alumni and parent, who accused him of demanding Bt400,000 in “tea money” in exchange for the parent’s Mathayom 1 child being accepted into the school.

Wiroj insisted that he didn’t receive the Bt400,000 as alleged in the video, saying the seemingly well-planned clip might be doctored.

Wiroj said that the school’s student recruitment via a special quota was done as per Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) conditions.

They include student applicants who obtained equal scores in entrance exams for the last eligible place, those accepted via a special agreement in establishing the school and those deemed as eligible underprivileged or disabled children. They also include children of people who sacrificed for the country, children of the school’s teachers or staff, students accepted via a quota as per agreement with partner schools and children of people who made continuous contributions to the school. This latter group was limited to 60 children per year.

“The student in the middle of this case won’t be affected because the child is innocent. This kid was announced as accepted to the school since April 5, while the clip in question was recorded on April 19, so I don’t understand why the clip was published now,” he said.

In a hand-written letter to Obec, Wiroj claimed that some alumni were unhappy with the fact the school could only take some of the Mathayom 1 and 4 students that sought places at the school. These alumni had verbally threatened him before.

He said the clip seemed to be well-prepared to blackmail the school in all steps from photo-copying banknotes, making a phone call, and talking with Wiroj while he was signing papers at his office. But he said no brown envelope was submitted or accepted, as alleged.

Earlier, Wiroj filed a libel complaint at Bang Sue Police against his accuser and submitted the video clip as evidence.

Wiroj said the incident tarnished his and the school’s reputation. He insisted that he had not demanded money in exchange for taking the |student at the school and said he had to exercise his legal right to defend his and the school’s name.

Meanwhile, the Samsen Wittayalai School’s Alumni Association issued a statement yesterday saying they felt uneasy about news that had tarnished their beloved school’s reputation and expressed their opposition to all |forms of corruption and illegal benefit seeking.

They said they would cooperate with related agencies in gathering and verifying facts and taking legal action. The association said they would closely follow the case and keep the public informed.

On Monday Obec chief Karun Sakulpradit assigned Bangkok’s Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1 to set up a fact-finding panel to probe the case.