Parents Hate the Skate as Roller Disco Grips Bangkok

A thumping disco beat, laser lights, a darkened room, girls spinning by. Another night in Bangkok, one that makes parents tremble.

An explosion of disco roller rinks has swept the city, luring students away from their classes and raising fears of youth run wild.

“Who’s to blame?” a local paper headlined a story about a 13-year-old boy from a good family who had been “ruined because of the influence of roller skates.”

The rinks--there are 33 of them now, down from 52 a few months ago--have acquired the sort of reputation that usually is attached toteen-age drinking or drug use. However, those vices are not the attraction, according to Niyom Karnchanawatana, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

“They are addicted to the music, to the beat,” he said.

At Diamond Skate, a downtown rink, Akanit Teeranitayatarn, the manager, explained the disco roller craze. “They like to push off to the music,” he said.

Under a flashing sign that proclaimed “the best in disco skate,” teen-age boys and girls were pushing off to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”

The music was numbing and, for a weekday, the place was jumping. The boys were doing flips and gliding past in the split position on their rear wheels.

Ratana Prasertsompol, 19, swept up to a padded guardrail, dripping with perspiration. She goes to the rink five times a week, after school, she said. The cost is about $1.50 for admission and skate rental.

Are her parents concerned?

“Only that I might be injured,” she said.

Was she looking for boys?

“Oh, no,” she said, giggling, and skated off with her 13-year-old sister.

Still, Diamond Skate is clearly a place for encounters--”appointments,” the manager calls them. In rest areas off the rink, a few youngsters were puffing cigarettes and rocking to the music. Most wore pants and loose blouses or shirts, but others were still in their tailored school uniforms.

Truancy is the main problem, Niyom, the police official, said. Truant officers make regular checks at the rinks, along with juvenile officers and patrolmen. Skaters cutting classes are taken to a police station for a lecture “on what they should do and what they should not do.” Then, the parents are called.

Almost 500 truants were picked up in the first six months of this year.

Rink owners can be fined for operating outside the authorized hours, which end at 10 p.m. Liquor is banned at the rinks, as is “improper behavior,” such as “kissing each other in front of the public,” Niyom said. In one extreme case, five girls and a rink manager were arrested and fined for staging a nude show.

Disco skating “is just like fashion,” Niyom noted. “It comes and it goes.” He said the craze started about a year ago.

“It’s a social problem, not a criminal problem,” he said. “Nowadays, with the economic situation, parents have to work pretty hard, so they have less time to look after their kids.”

The police, Niyom said, are trying to encourage parents and teachers to work on the cause of the problem. Niyom and other authorities say that Bangkok--a crowded city of more than 5 million people--does not offer enough facilities for teen-agers.

“Youngsters have a lot of energy,” Niyom said. “You have to drain it off.”

Dr. Udomsilp Srisaengnam, a psychologist, said that ignoring the needs of children “is the root of rebellious behavior.”

Bangkok has only a handful of public parks, and other recreation areas are limited. By comparison, opportunities for “adult entertainment” abound,most notably in the nightclubs, bars and massage parlors that have given the city a notorious reputation.

Jumpol Navaithiporn, a 16-year-old habitue of Diamond Skate, exemplifies the predicament. He said his mother is unhappy with him because he comes home late from the rink. What does he do for fun when he’s not skating?

“I shoot a little pool,” he said.