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he Education Agency has acted quickly in response to allegations of sexual assault involving an East Jakarta senior high school vice principal and a student by dismissing the school official from his post.

The agency made its move even before police had named a suspect in the case.

“We dismissed him from his positions as a teacher and vice principal on Feb. 22. We are currently considering an appropriate punishment to impose on him,” deputy agency head Agus Suradika told The Jakarta Post on Friday, referring to the man who had allegedly assaulted a third-grader several times since June 2012.

“We will decide what is most suitable for this case. The punishment may be a demotion or even his being discharged as a civil servant.”

He added that he had yet to learn whether the law stipulated the governor being authorized to hand down the punishment.

Agus said the agency had taken swift action despite the teacher’s role as a witness for police, who are still investigating the allegations, after receiving reports from “the victim, and several other trusted sources”.

“Also, [what the vice principal did] is utterly inappropriate as a teacher,” he said.

Agus said the agency would also counsel the parents and closely monitor the student as she was due to take the national examination in April.

T, 46, a vice principal from a city-owned senior high school in East Jakarta was reported to the East Jakarta Police on Feb. 9 by a third-grade student, MA, at the school for allegedly forcing her to perform oral sex on four separate occasions.

According to the police’s preliminary inquiries, one of the sexual assaults took place in Ancol, North Jakarta, in June 2012; two in Sentul, Bogor, in July 2012, and one at the teacher’s house in Bekasi in February 2013.

Based on the victim’s testimony, police said the girl was afraid that if she refused to do what was asked of her, it may affect her grades and hopes for graduation.

“The man’s position made the girl fear that her grades might be affected although the vice principal did not teach her class,” Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto told reporters on Friday. He said T was a biology teacher, while MA was a social science student.

Rikwanto said police had questioned the victim and a counselor at the school, whom police said had received a statement from the girl before she filed the police report.

He explained that the girl eventually went to the police after telling her mother about it.

“So far, we haven’t questioned the former vice principal.

We are still questioning other sources [at places where the alleged incidents took place] to gather more evidence,” he said.

T said separately that he denied the allegations against him, but confirmed that he and the student in question had been to those three places to discuss “school affairs” at “the girl’s own initiative”, kompas.com reported.

If found guilty, T could face up to 15 years’ imprisonment for violating Article 81 of the 2002 Child Protection Law, Rikwanto said. (fzm)